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)