X-Message-Number: 9920
From: "Halperin, Jim" <>
Subject: Alleged AIDS Remedy Rights Bought
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 17:17:11 -0500

This just came over the AP Wire:

>                        Alleged AIDS Remedy Rights Bought
> 
>                              (AP Online; 06/20/98)
> 
> 
>  By PAT REBER  Associated Press Writer
> 
>    JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP)   The rights to an alleged AIDS
> remedy that 
> sparked political and scientific controversy last year have been sold
> to a 
> business consortium, a company spokesman said Saturday.
> 
>    The consortium, called Virodene Pharmaceutical Holdings, bought the
> majority 
> interest in Cryopreservation Technologies that developed Virodene
> P058, a 
> spokesman for the consortium, Larry Heidebrecht, told The Associated
> Press.
> 
>    He declined to name the purchase price, but media reports Friday
> said VPH 
> paid $3.7 million for a 70 percent share.
> 
>    "The new investors have assured the previous owners that they have
> the money 
> to take the drug all the way to the market," Heidebrecht said. "They
> are in it 
> for the long haul."
> 
>    Researchers claim Virodene dramatically reduced the level of HIV in
> 
> patients' blood and boosted their infection-fighting CD4 cell counts
> within 
> weeks.
> 
>    The drug's maker has faced criticism, in part because South African
> 
> researchers deviated from accepted procedures in testing the
> experimental AIDS 
> drug.
> 
>    Critics attacked Virodene's developers, Olga Visser and two other 
> researchers, alleging they conducted unauthorized human experiments,
> used a 
> toxic substance in the drug without proof it worked, and sidestepped
> peer 
> review in seeking government funding.
> 
>    Some scientists also criticized the researchers for testing on
> humans 
> without first going through laboratory and animal trials.
> 
>    The drug also caused a political scandal: Deputy President Thabo
> Mbeki and 
> other top African National Congress officials are being investigated
> for 
> alleged conflict of interest in connection with the drug.
> 
>    The investigation, begun at the request of the opposition
> Democratic party, 
> is probing whether Mbeki had acted unethically in his contacts with
> the company 
> that developed the drug.
> 
>    The consortium will bring a cash infusion to press on with research
> and 
> address the concerns of regulators, Heidebrecht said.
> 
>    The consortium said it is nearly finished preparing a testing plan
> to submit 
> to the Medicines Control Council, the South African agency that would
> have to 
> approve human trials of the drug.
> 
>    
> 
>    
> 
> {APWire:Science-0620.201}   06/20/98
> 
> 
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> Immortal:
> <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345420926/002-9094718-5980856
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 

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