"Against the Odds, Paul Charlap Bets on an AIDS Drug Forsaken by"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"Against the Odds, Paul Charlap Bets on an AIDS Drug Forsaken by"

Wall Street Journal (12/28/89), P. B6
Koenig, Richard

Abstract: Ampligen, a drug most AIDS researchers have dismissed, has new life thanks to a combative businessman. Paul A. Charlap,a 65-year-old semiretired former chairman of the office-copier firm Savin Corp., is now chief executive officer of HEM Research Inc., a closely-held Philadelpia company that holds certain rights to Ampligen. In 1987, the drug showed promise in fightingAIDS in a 10-patient trial. However, a 334-patient trial flopped, causing Du Pont to pull out of a joint venture with HEM.According to Daniel Hoth of the National Insitutes of Health, "I think this is a drug for which the scientific jury has made its informal verdict." Charlap, however, stands behind HEM scientists, who believe the effectiveness of Ampligen was compromised in the larger trial, perhaps because the drug was packaged in plastic instead of glass vials. The researchers theorize that something in the plastic may have interacted with the drug. Charlap is looking for a European pharmaceutical firm to back continued studies of Ampligen.

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