The first drug ever for the treatment of autism may soon be available to patients, if the FDA likes what it sees in the final clinical trials.

Those phase 3 clinical trials are about to begin in Utah, at the Children's Biomedical Center.

Autism has now reached epidemic proportions in this country, afflicting one in every 250 children. If you look at the full spectrum of autistic disorders, the number is one in every 150 children.

Five years ago Jodie and Phil Hunsaker traveled to California to get their son experimental injections of a pig hormone called Secretin. Not much was known about it at the time, only that it appeared to reverse some of the symptoms of autism.

Pharmaceutical researchers have since learned how to synthesize a human derivative of the hormone. From crude experiments, Secretin has now moved to a new level of bona fide double blind scientific clinical trials.

At the Children's Biomedical Center in Sandy, Utah autistic children are about to participate in the final phase of that national study.

The data so far looks promising.

BRYAN JEPSON, M.D., DIRECTOR, CHILDREN'S BIOMEDICAL CENTER OF UTAH: "WHAT THEY SEE MAINLY IS CHANGES IN SOCIAL ABILITIES AND SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS. AND THEY'VE ALSO SEEN SOME IMPROVEMENT IN LANGUAGE SKILLS. BUT IT DOES SEEM THAT YOUNGER KIDS RESPOND TO IT."

Children who never interacted with people before, do now. They seem to show more social skills, as Stan Beagley has observed with his five year old son.

STAN BEAGLEY, SON HAS AUTISM: "SOMETIMES YOU WOULD COME INTO THE HOUSE FROM WORK OR FROM BEING AWAY AND HE WOULDN'T LOOK AT YOU. HE WOULD JUST KEEP GOING WITH WHAT HE WAS DOING. AND NOW HE'LL SOMETIMES RUN UP TO YOU AND HUG YOU - ACT MORE AGE APPROPRIATELY FOR WHAT A TYPICAL CHILD WOULD DO."

Dr. Bryan Jepson believes Secretin may be one small piece of the puzzle, but one which might make many autistic kids functional again.

JEPSON: "THAT'S WHY I'M INVOLVED IN THIS - IS TO SEE THOSE KIDS GO FROM NO PROGRESS TO SOMEDAY MAINSTREAM. AND I WOULD SAY A PRETTY HIGH PERCENTAGE OF THOSE KIDS CAN ACHIEVE THAT LEVEL."

Though Secretin may well become the first approved drug for treatment of autism, it's still not a cure. What scientists are really looking for long-term is a way to screen newborns and prevent the triggering of the disorder in the first place.