Microbicides

Today was an important day, and a great preview for the conference I am attending next week. My whole day has been spent on microbicides, which are compounds that seek to block the transmission of HIV. The Pop Council is in the midst of a Phase III clinical trial (the last phase before approval) to evaluate our microbicide, which is called Carraguard. It's made from Carrageenan, which is a seaweed used in many food and other products. There are several other microbicides being developed, but the Council's is the furthest along.

My role in this is a limited but important one. If our microbicide is proven to work, we will have to find a manufacturer and distributor for it. I will help to negotiate those deals, along with our scientific and legal colleagues.

There are a hundred ethical issues involving microbicides, but here is just one: what if the microbicide works 50% of the time? Would you want to distribute it? If it worked that well, it would have what is called "herd effect," which means that it would cut severely into the epidemic, benefiting huge numbers of people. But the effect for any one person is only 50%, so one must be careful how one markets such a product. You would never, for instance, want to have people who do use condoms stop using them in such a situation, believing that the product protected them well enough.

The next post will be about my visit to one of the three sites that we have in South Africa to test Carraguard.