Microbicides

Hot - the Post says things are happening. But the best news isn't on the science front, but on the intellectual property side:

The International Partnership for Microbicides, a Silver Spring group working to bring a preventive gel to women at risk of AIDS in poor countries, said Monday it had struck deals with Merck & Co. and with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. The contracts give the group, funded by foundations, the right to create a combination gel using drugs from a promising new category known as HIV entry inhibitors. They block the entry of the virus into human cells, and such compounds are already under development as pills for infected people.

Licensing is the critical failing point of most AIDS drugs, in that huge costs keep needed drugs from the poor populations most affected by AIDS. Having this deal worked out before the products hit the market is huge.