Repost: Scientists struggling to get funding for vaginal gel for women with HIV/AIDS

[Kathryn Stewart]

Scientists struggling to get funding for vaginal gel for women with...

Posted on Women's Views on News by Alison Clarke on September 27, 2010

South African scientists were in New York last week trying to secure funding for the final trials of a vaginal gel that could save millions of lives by giving women the chance to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS.

The microbicide gel, containing the antiretroviral agent tenofovir, passed phase III clinical trials in June, and the success was announced at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna in July (see WVoN story).

But efforts last month to drum up funding for two final trials have so far produced promises of only US$58 million, much less than the US$100 million that the researchers want.

Salim Abdool Karim, a scientist at the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) who led a study of the gel with his wife, Quarraisha Abdool Karim, said the money is needed to pay for
support studies and product licensing.

The CAPRISA 004 trial, which found that tenofovir gel was at least 39 per cent effective in preventing HIV infection when it was applied before and after sex, was conducted in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal
province, which has one of the world’s highest HIV infection rates.

A woman can apply the gel even if her partner refuses to use a condom.

And that is presumably because she can’t refuse to have sex with him if he wants to go ahead without a condom. Wow, there’s equality for you.

Read the story on AllAfrica.com.