AEGiS-GMHC: DRUG WATCH: SmithKline Blocks Investigation of AIDS Drug

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1994. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

DRUG WATCH: SmithKline Blocks Investigation of AIDS Drug

Gay Men's Health Crisis: Treatment Issues, Volume 8 no. 4 - June 1994
David Gold and Dave Gilden

Alan Pardee, M.D., and his group at Harvard University's Dana-Farber Institute has found that the experimental anticancer drug topotecan is also a potent inhibitor in the test tube of HIV replication. General rights to topotecan are owned by its manufacturer, SmithKline Beecham, but Dana- Farber proceeded to file a use patent for HIV applications. SmithKline in response has stopped supplying topotecan for any HIV experimentation and refuses to negotiate any payment to Dana-Farber. One prominent researcher is said to have been ready to begin a trial using topotecan in HIV-positive people with lymphoma, but SmithKline delayed it at the last moment. The company reportedly now insists that all future topotecan trials for whatever purpose exclude anyone who tests HIV-positive.

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