WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (AFP) - An experimental AIDS drug was stolen from a North Carolina storage facility, leading to a warning from the US Food and Drug Administration.

The federal agency on Tuesday issued a warning that the unapproved experimental drug, a goat antiserum, was likely to be contaminated and had "the potential to be extremely dangerous," a statement issued Friday indicated.

"It's an effort to let potential patients know of the possible problem with the serum," FDA public health specialist Donald Pole told AFP Wednesday. "It's an investigational product that could be dangerous."

Unidentified thieves took some 80 litres of the drug from the storage facility of Gary Davis, who had been working on the drug for the last year or so, Pole said. Pole said it had no street value, though bootleg anti-retroviral drugs have, in the past, been sold on the black market.

The antiserum was developed in a host body -- in this case a goat -- and the antibodies were then extracted to be used in treatment. Pole said the antiserum could eventually be used as a substitute for AIDS drugs such as AZT to combat the virus.

Davis' research was on clinical hold because of several safety issues that needed to be resolved before clinical studies could begin, Pole said. The future of further research using the goat antiserum remains in doubt, he added.

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