WOMEN will get the power to protect themselves against AIDS, if the World Health Organisation has its way. Encouraging men to use condoms, it has decided, is not enough. They work, but many men dislike them; and women, especially very young ones, often lack the sexual bargaining clout to insist. Instead, the WHO believes, pharmaceutical companies could have still-to-be-perfected microbicidal vaginal gels or sprays on the market within two years--if they are given a bit …showed first 75 words of 420 total…

…showed last 75 words of 420 total…Any new drug faces the hazard of litigation. But imagine a widely used gel, easily available, whose failure could be literally deadly to the person concerned. Then add American stretcher-chasing and the risk that some legal eagle could get a suit accepted by an American court. Throw in the fiery mixture of sex and third-world research trials (transmission of HIV there is usually heterosexual), and the drug companies have some reason not to rush in.