The Academy of Military Medical Science said yesterday that it
is producing China's first AIDS drug with independent intellectual
property rights and that it has been approved for clinical
trials.
He Fuchu, the academy's vice president, told a news briefing in
Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, that IBE-5
marks a major breakthrough and has outperformed combination
therapies in tests on monkeys.
He said that the drug has now been approved by the State Food
and Drug Administration for clinical trials involving humans.
"The safety of the new drug is reliable," he said, adding that
it showed remarkable performance in curbing the duplication of HIV
and was effective for longer than combination therapies.
The academy began to develop IBE-5 in 1994 and applied for a
national patent for it in 1996.
The Jiangzhong Pharmaceutical Group, a major domestic medicine
producer, joined the program in 1996, said Zhong Hongguang, the
group's board chairman.
He added that Jiangzhong has applied for patent protection for
the drug and its production technique in more than 20
countries.
(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2005)