Top U.S. Officials Warned Of Concerns Before AIDS Drug Sent To Africa

A few weeks before George Bush announced a plan (2002) to help protect babies in Africa from AIDS, US health officials had been warned about the flaws in nevirapine, an anti AIDS drug. Even so, the health officials probably underreported the negative aspects of the studies on nevirapine - say US government documents. The problems with nevirapine were so bad that testing had to be suspended for over a year. The producers of nevirapine, Boehringer Ingelheim, even decided not to apply for US approval for the treatment of American babies. Despite lots of negative information regarding nevirapine, the NIH decided not to tell the Whitehouse. Nevirapine was eventually used as the cheap option to help Africa fight AIDS.