But the technical problems are formidable and funding is limited. It is unlikely that an effective microbicide will be on the market anytime soon. Well, we eventually realized that men don't like condoms. Meanwhile, women are getting infected by the thousands. But unless the National Institutes of Health radically overhauls its funding priorities and some political heavies prove willing to lobby for a product that women stick into their vaginas, an effective microbicide is probably more than five years away.
Clinical trials are complicated and expensive.
But each time a woman heeds that advice, she is lost to the study. Compared with AIDS vaccine research, the federal government spends almost nothing on microbicides. Microbicide researchers also complain that Food and Drug Administration regulators have yet to come up with standards for the safety and efficacy of microbicides, leaving scientists in the dark about what studies are needed to win FDA approval of the product. It is sad, though hardly surprising, considering the technical challenges, that drug companies have shown no interest in developing a microbicide. What's more, suppositories will never be as uniformly effective as pills would be, raising the specter of lawsuits.