Pfizer Licenses HIV Med To Non-Profit

Interesting news from Pfizer today:

A new Pfizer Inc. HIV drug will soon be reformulated in an effort to prevent the transmission of the virus, offering a faint ray of hope in an arena littered with disappointments.

The New York drug maker is expected to announce today that it will license its new medicine, Selzentry, to a nonprofit that investigates ways to turn HIV medicines for infected patients into vaginal substances to prevent transmission to women during sex. The partnership offers a low-risk way for Pfizer to find out if the medicine could become a frequently taken drug, while potentially offering an empowering concept to women in the developing world.

HIV preventives have proven elusive, with researchers and advocates still recovering from last year’s collapse of Merck & Co.’s once-promising vaccine trial. And Pfizer’s new venture with the International Partnership for Microbicides is a long shot that relies on an unproven theory. But with some 33 million people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the enormous health and financial stakes continue to drive the hunt for treatments.

In August the FDA approved Selzentry for patients that have failed other HIV regimens. I know we’ve got lots of people reading JMG who are working on various PrEP models. Weigh in on this news, please.