NZ
Company Makes AIDS Drug Breakthrough
By: A. Channings, New
Zealand
A New Zealand based Company has been given the US Federal Drug
Administration's go ahead for a drug to beat AIDS.
The drug called HRG214 was discovered by the Companies executive
director, and has been developed at their high-security New
Zealand research laboratory over the past six years.
Extensive tests have already shown the drug's antibodies are
capable of destroying HIV and preventing further infection.
Clinical trials of HRG214 have begun at Harvard Medical School's
Beth Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston with twenty HIV patients
starting treatment. Production of the drug could begin by mid-2003
if all three phases of the clinical trials are successful.
Drug companies are unlikely to make any money from HRG214 as the
Corporation will market the plasma from which the drug is made to
poorer nations, so that they can develop and sell the drug at an
affordable price. The Corporation has patented the drug in several
countries and will also safeguard its property by keeping control
of the plasma manufacturing process.
The firm are currently working on three other drugs that have
already been patented.
While
there are no drugs currently available that prevent or cure HIV It
is hoped that this exciting development will help alleviate the
suffering of AIDS victims. The Corporation is working to improve
this drug, which is designed not to just suppress HIV but to kill
it.
