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A US study to evaluate the safety of the anti-AIDS drug, Viread, produced by drug giant Gilead Sciences, as a vaginal microbicide has proven successful in humans.
Researchers from the Brown Medical School, in Providence, Rhode Island, in the US, said that Viread produced mild or no side effects as a vaginal gel when used by both HIV-positive and negative women, compared to past trials where certain gels had caused ulcerations and inflammation.
"Analysing the compounds that already have been shown to be successful HIV treatment drugs and evaluating them for their potential to prevent transmission of infection is an innovative approach that shows great promise," one of the authors of the study, Kenneth Mayer, told Scidev.net, a leading online science news website.
Mayer was hopeful that the new findings could change the way the research community looked at developing safe and effective microbicides.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions