Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1994. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Newsday - July 12, 1994
Laurie Garrett. Staff Correspondent
In a dramatic shift, U.S. health officials conceded that a human immunodeficiency virus discovered in the Institut Pasteur laboratory of Dr. Luc Montagnier was used by Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Institutes of Health to create his AIDS blood test.
In acknowledging this, the NIH leadership agreed to shift the allotment of future patent royalties to give more to the Paris-based Institut Pasteur. Since 1987, the United States has received $20 million in royalties, while France has received $14 million, officials said.
Last year, under the previous agreement, the NIH received about $2.8 million in AIDS test kit royalties, and Pasteur got about $2.1 million, said Pasteur director Maxime Singer. Under the new agreement, Singer said, "It would essentially be the reverse."
The scientists, Gallo and Montagnier, will continue to receive their personal royalties, which are modest portions of their respective nations' revenues.
Acknowledging that the money was of only secondary concern, Singer said the "really big step" is that "finally the truth is being told."
Montagnier said in an interview that he was "very, very happy," adding that "there is no doubt that it was my team at Institut Pasteur that had first isolated the virus. We also had developed research to show that the virus caused AIDS."
"I think it is fair to say both teams contributed to the establishment of proving that the virus caused AIDS," he added. "And today I feel good, yes. I would have wished that it could have happened before, but I am really happy that it has happened today."
Gallo left the gathering, shunning the press. He issued a statement, saying he had published an acknowledgement in 1991 that "due to an accidental contamination we had used a virus from the Pasteur in our blood test. This same accidental contamination had first occurred in the Pasteur laboratory."
Gallo said that at the same time, his laboratory had cultured several other batches of the AIDS virus, including at least one that could have been used for the blood test. "It was our laboratory that was the first to demonstrate that a new virus was the cause of AIDS, to explain how to mass produce that virus and to develop a workable blood test," Gallo said.
The officials who forged the agreement yesterday expressed hope it would help open a new era of Franco-American collaboration in all biomedical research.
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