Daily Record from Morristown, New Jersey • Page 2

A2 Daily Record, Morris County, N.J. Saturday, May 1 1 993 Statenation Pricey U.S.-made drug better choice for heart attack By Paul Recer Associated Press WASHINGTON An expensive American-made drug was found to save more lives in emergency heart attack treatment than a cheaper European-marketed drug, according to the largest study ever of "clot busters" for clogged coronary arteries. Researchers told a news conference yesterday that the American drug called tissue plasminogen activator, or t-PA, was more effective The study divided patients into four divisions, or study arms. In each of the study parts the clot-busting drugs were administered with heparin, a blood-thinning agent used routinely in heart attack treatment. Dr.

Robert M. Califf of Duke University, a leader in the study, said that the work proved conclusively that the speed with which clogged arteries are opened by drugs does affect survival of heart attack patients. This point had been controversial among heart experts. ly better, with one life more saved per 100 treated. If you open arteries more and faster it will save more lives." Genentech reportedly invested about $55 million in the new study to produce the largest heart attack trial ever.

The study also was sponsored by four other pharmaceutical firms. Because of the drug company support, Topol said the researchers were carefully isolated from any of the commercial interests. 41,000 patients at 1,100 hospitals in 16 countries. The patients were as young as 19 and as old as 110. A unique element of the study called for 25 percent of the patients to receive the standard t-PA dose in just 30 minutes instead of over three hours.

The rapid injection appeared to increase patient survival, said Dr. Eric J. Topol, chairman of the study and a professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. "We have to put to rest this battle of the thrombolytics," Topol said. "Accelerated t-PA was significant ivingston man Panda-saving effort did harm, book says gets life terms for 3 murders costs about $200.

Earlier studies did not show a significant medical difference between the two drugs. T-PA is manufactured and marketed under the name Activase by Genentech Inc. of San Francisco. Trading of company stock on the New York Stock Exchange was halted at noon at the firm's request. When trading resumed after results of the heart attack study were announced, the Genentech stock shot up.

The study involved more than 1 rsr 1 i I GREG ENGLISH Associated Press Worldwide efforts to save giant pandas like this one, in his Beijing Zoo home in 1989, may have backfired, an American biologist writes in a new book, 'The Last I ing doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to implement voluntary price constraints. Under the "stand-by" policy she discussed, according to senators who attended, the government would have legislation ready to enforce controls if the voluntary restraints didn't work after a certain period, such as a year or two. That compromise, according to aides familiar with the meeting, is likely aimed at appeasing both Republicans who oppose price controls and the medical industry, By KATHY WlLHELM Associated Press BEIJING The panda was the star animal of the 1980s. Children worldwide saved pennies for panda preservation. Millions of people visited panda exhibits.

China built million-dollar centers to house and breed pandas. It didn't save them it put a price on their head. Chinese poachers learned they could get more than $10,000 for a pelt. World zoos made millions from panda shows. "I am haunted by the realization that the (panda conservation) project may have harmed rather than helped the pandas," says field biologist George Schaller in his new book, "The Last Panda." "Had the panda remained in the obscurity of its bamboo thickets, free from worldwide publicity and the greed this publicity helped to fuel, there might not now be so many captives," writes Schaller, an American who did pioneering work tracking China's wild pandas in 1980-85.

The book is an insider's story of what went wrong in the world's frantic efforts to save pandas, and why the prospects for the estimat which would prefer to implement its own controls. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who is expected to be a key supporter of President Clinton's plan in Congress, said he thought the "stand-by" compromise should take the edge off GOP complaints. "With Republicans hearing a Democratic first lady saying 'What we're thinking about maybe doing is having voluntary that should dilute Republican arguments, Rockefeller said. However, some Republicans tenberg, sent a letter to Clinton expressing their support for multinational air strikes against Serbian artillery sites and lifting of the arms embargo against Bosnian Muslims.

Christopher is due to stop first in London and Paris and, after Moscow, in Brussels and Bonn. The allies have shown a lack of enthusiasm for any military inter i4th sentence late this month By Fred Pieretti Associated Press NEWARK A Livingston handyman who preyed on the elderly received life in prison yesterday for murdering three people in Essex County, including two on Thanksgiving Day last year. Superior Court Judge Joseph Falcone sentenced 49-year-old Frank Masini to three life sentences with no possibility of parole for 60 years. The judge said society must be protected from Masini because he is serial killer who would likely strike again. "I need help.

Please help me. I am very sorry. God forgive me," Masini, a native of Naples, Italy, told Falcone in a hushed voice. Masini pleaded guilty two weeks ago to murdering four elderly people, including two relatives. Masini faces sentencing May 28 in Ocean County for the fourth murder.

Falcone also ordered Masini, who owns a business and two homes, to pay $22,500 to the state Violent Crimes Compensation Board. Masini was acquainted with all four victims and entered their residences freely. All four died of stab wounds to the neck and throat. 'Illness here' State medical and psychiatric evaluations of Masini showed him to be sane. His lawyer, Keith Biebelberg, said there was no "viable insanity defense." "But clearly something tragic happened to Frank Masini.

Surely there is an illness here," Biebelberg said. Masini murdered 83-year-old Michael Krieger, and his wife, 79-year-old Betty Krieger in their West Orange home on Thanksgiving. Masini had performed household jobs for the Kriegers for the past 10 years. He said he first killed Krieger with a letter opener after the two discussed household work on the first floor of the house. Masini said he tried to hide from Betty Krieger but stabbed her from behind when she came to look at her husband lying on the floor.

Hillary courts Republicans on health care than an older drug from Europe, streptokinase. Both drugs are called "clot busters," or thrombolytic compounds, that dissolve blood clots that can cause heart attack by clogging coronary arteries. The drugs generally are administered in hospital emergencies after tests show that a patient has experienced a heart attack. First issued in the mid-1980s, t-PA failed to live up to forecasts of wide acceptance. T-PA costs about $2,200 a dose, while streptokinase 'I need Frank Masini told a Superior Court judge yesterday at his sentencing.

'I am very sorry. God forgive Andrew Krieger fought back tears as he read a long statement about the impact of his father's death on their family. "We will never adjust to this unnatural death," Krieger, of New York, said, holding on to his wife for support. "I am imprisoned forever by this terrible act." Maxine Krieger, a stepdaughter of the victims, called Masini a "calloused, calculating, cold-blooded murderer." "Frank Masini deserves the death penalty," Maxine Krieger said. Masini could have faced the death penalty if had been tried and convicted for the murders.

But prosecutors said that the pleas avoided a lengthy and costly trial. Family torment The murders also tormented Ma- sini's own family. Masini's wife and two children wrote letters on his behalf to the judge, saying his behavior was inexplicable and offering condolences to the victims' families. Masini's third victim in Essex County was 90-year-old Anna Masini, an aunt. He said he stabbed her in the neck after having a soft drink with her in her kitchen in November 1991.

Police tracked Masini through a bloody fingerprint and footprint from a specialized hiking boot left in the home of the Kriegers. The boots were found in Masini's home. He was arrested Dec. 23 by officers of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. Masini said he discarded the weapons after each murder.

Masini admitted murdering 79-year-old Angelina Ialeggio in her apartment in Lavallette, Ocean County, in December 1991. He calmly described having a cup of coffee in Ialeggio's kitchen and then picking up a knife on a counter top and slashing her neck, severing her jugular vein. returned, said company spokesman Hans-Joachim Allgaier. Beck may know by the end of the year whether it has a commercially viable mutant. "We wouldn't sell it as space beer," Allgaier said in a telephone interview from the company's headquarters in Bremen.

"We're too conservative to market beer like that. Besides, it wouldn't taste like space." The yeast is among the less weighty of the 88 experiments in Columbia's payload, which is being monitored at a space center outside Munich. German scientists, who are running scientific experiments aboard the German-American shuttle mission, often roll their eyes at mention of the yeast experiment. "It's ridiculous to say we're brewing beer in space," said the mission manager, Hauke ed 1,000 still in the wild are fast declining. An additional 100 are in captivity, mainly within China.

"The habitat has shrunk by one-third and hundreds of pandas have been killed" since conservation efforts began in the 1970s, Schaller said in a telephone interview from his New York office. He now is director for science at the Wildlife Conservation Society. He said China has not set up anti-poaching patrols or halted logging inside reserves, and world zoos still borrow pandas for short-term shows without regard for the impact on breeding. In addition, he said, the U.S. government has caved in repeatedly to pressure from politicians to allow their hometown zoos to bring in panda exhibits, violating laws sharply restricting the import of endangered animals.

Schaller's most serious disagreement with his Chinese colleagues was over their preference for capturing pandas and trying to breed them artificially rather than taking firm action to clear reserves of poachers and loggers. He said he has not had any official Chinese reaction to his book, which he mailed to the Chinese Embassy in Washington. weren't impressed. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he was opposed to having the government dictate prices.

"We don't believe that's the United States' way," he said. During the session, Hillary Clinton pledged plenty of room for compromise, and Republicans praised her effort to draw them into the debate. One of her husband's chief critics, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, stood at her side at a news conference later and promised the GOP's help. vention in the Balkans war and special concern for the potential impact on British, French and Canadian forces engaged in humanitarian operations there. "I'm going to have another meeting in the morning about it, do a little more work on the way back today and then have another meeting in the morning," Clinton told reporters yesterday in New Orleans, inn Special C.

riff to seek Russians' aid against Serbs YOUR FUR DESERVES PROPER By Karen Ball Associated Press WASHINGTON Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped up the White House campaign to sell Republicans on health care yesterday, suggesting a potential compromise on price controls that would give the government "stand-by" authority to enforce voluntary constraints. In a two-hour session with about 50 senators, both Republicans and Democrats, Hillary Clinton said the White House is considering allow Christopher WASHINGTON (AP) The United States is trying to enlist Russian support for undisclosed tougher measures against Serbs in Bosnia, even while traditional U.S. allies in Europe appear hesitant. Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher will make the pitch directly in Moscow Tuesday as part of a weeklong trip that will take him to several West European Trenton State students to get $150 refunds TRENTON (AP) The Trenton State College Board of Trustees has approved a $150 tuition rollback and students can expect a refund check shortly, school officials said.

The board voted unanimously Thursday to set its tuition increase for the 1993 school year at $350 instead of the $500 already levied. "We anticipate refunds being sent to students within the coming month," said Eleanor Home, board vice chairwoman. May graduates will receive their refunds at home and refunds for students on scholarship will be sent to the sponsors, said Alfred Bridges, a college vice president. The board's approval was the final step in a compromise reached earlier this month with the state Board of Higher Education. Trenton State can still raise tuition for out-of-state undergraduate and graduate students by $500.

SUMMER Shuttle's a booze cruise as beer orbits the Earth countries as well. He is tentatively due to depart tonight after President Clinton concludes with his senior advisers a final high-level White House review of the options, including a U.S. aerial attack on Serb artillery and a lifting of an arms blockade against Bosnia. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of 16 senators, including Frank Lau- Correction The 42nd annual Antique Auto Club of America spring show will be held tomorrow on the grounds of Automatic Switch Hanover Road, Florham Park. An incorrect date appeared in yesterday's TGIF section.

Copyright 1993 Morristown Newspapers Inc. Published every day by Morristown Newspapers Incorporated. 629 Parsippany Road, Parsippany, N.J. 07054. Second-class postage (USPS 010750) paid at Parsippany, N.J.

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Subscription Rates Home Delivered: Seven days $2.10 Monday-Saturday $1.35 per week Sunday only $.75 per week Mjllrttw: 1wMk 4mki Utmeki Hmeki S2Nki 7days $4.25 $17.00 $55.25 $110.50 $221.00 $3.00 $12.20 $39.00 $76.00 $156.00 Sun Only $1.80 $7.20 $2340 $46.80 $93.60 Mad subscriptions must be paid before cornmencement of delivery. To order home delivery, please cat 201-4284444 or 1-M0-39M990 QUALITY FURRIERS SINCE 1928 Id IMM SIMM'. MOKKIsrmw I.OSK1) SfND.VY OBERPFAFFEN-HOFEN, Germany (AP) Don't look now, but the German beer of your future may be orbiting on the space shuttle Columbia. A spiral tube of Beck and finest ingredients is fermenting aboard the current shuttle mission, to determine whether the weightlessness and intense cosmic rays of space can genetical- ly alter yeast to produce tastier beer. Germans may be tittering that their national passion for beer has been taken to the limits, literally.

Beck's lovers hope the already prized brew will taste even better. Beck also is searching for a brew that will ferment faster and at lower temperatures and that is more "wholesome" less likely to cause a hangover. Experts at the University of Munich will make sample batches from the yeast after it is PUBLIC NOTICE The Housing Authority of the Town of Morristown will be accepting applications for the Section 8 rental assistance program waiting list at the Rental Assistance Management Office, 29 Ann Street, Morristown, New Jersey. Applications will be available in person only on Monday, May 3 and 10, on Wednesday, May 5 and 12, and on Friday, May 7 and 14 from 9:00 a.m. to 12 noon.

Priority will be given to persons with federally mandated preferences..