Whither or Wither Microbicides?

doi:10.1126/science.1160355

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Science 25 July 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5888, pp. 532 - 534
DOI: 10.1126/science.1160355

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Perspective

Whither or Wither Microbicides?

Robert M. Grant,¹ Dean Hamer,² Thomas Hope,³ Rowena Johnston,⁴ Joep Lange,⁵ Michael M. Lederman,⁶ Judy Lieberman,⁷ Christopher J Miller,⁸ John P. Moore,⁹ Donald E. Mosier,¹⁰ Douglas D. Richman,¹¹ Robert T. Schooley,¹² Marty S. Springer,¹³ Ronald S. Veazey,¹⁴ Mark A. Wainberg¹⁵

After disappointing results from all efficacy trials conductedto date, the field of microbicides research now faces substantialchallenges. Poor coordination among interested parties and thechoice of nonvalidated scientific targets for phase III studieshave hampered progress and created mistrust about the use ofmicrobicides as a method to prevent HIV-1 sexual transmission.Although new promising strategies are available, there willneed to be serious reappraisals of how decisions are made toadvance the next generations of candidates into clinical trials,and the use of appropriate animal models in this process willbe critical.

¹ J. David Gladstone Institutes, University of California–San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94518, USA.
² National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.
³ Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
⁴ Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), New York, NY 10005, USA.
⁵ Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
⁶ Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals/Case Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
⁷ Immune Disease Institute and Division of AIDS, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁸ California National Primate Research Center, University of California–Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁹ Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
¹⁰ Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
¹¹ San Diego Healthcare System and University of California–San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.
¹² University of California–San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.
¹³ Merck & Co., Rahway, NJ 07090, USA.
¹⁴ Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, LA 70433, USA.
¹⁵ McGill University AIDS Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2, Canada.

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