Nelson, hiv drugs unknown in foreign countries?

Mar 21, 2004

Mr. Nelson,

What do you think?Is this possibility or totally unrealistic?

Hi. I hope you don't think that this is a dumb question. I know that we have quite a few hiv drugs already approved here in the United States and more in the pipeline. My question is are there drugs we don't know about being researched say in countries as Brazil, Russia, and Japan to treat hiv infection that may prove to be even better than the current drugs we have here today? And if any of these get approved and are seen to be effective for treatment in these foreign nations, is it likely that they may chooose to export them for profit to the United States? What do you think?

Thank you. You are extremely helpful always and we are grateful.

Nancy

Response from Mr. Vergel

Dear Nancy:

To be honest with you, I keep my eyes open to other possibilities and so far I have seen nothing else besides what is reported in the US conferences. The main drugs for hope in my opinion in the pipeline are the protease imhibitors Tipranavir, TMC-114, the nucleoside Reverset, the TANOX IV drug and the various oral entry inhibitors. Vaccine research is still not producing the dramatic results we want.

Nelson