US drug company Endo Pharmaceuticals' gel designed to prevent infection with the AIDS virus was ineffective in trials in Africa, Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) said. The large international trial of vaginal microbicide Pro 2000 in more than 9,000 women in four African countries found no evidence that it reduces the risk of HIV infection.
The result is a setback for the specialty drugmaker, whose shares were hit earlier in the month when U.S. health regulators declined to approve its Aveed drug for low testosterone. To date, no such gel, known as a microbicide, has been shown to prevent HIV infection and this trial "showed conclusively that Pro 2000 gel was of no added benefit," the council said in a statement.
"This result is disheartening, particularly in light of the results of a smaller trial sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health which suggested that Pro 2000 could reduce the risk of HIV infection by 30 per cent," the council's Sheena McCormack, who led the trial, said in a statement.