UM INSTITUTE TO AID CHINA IN ITS FIGHT TO HALT AIDS

Pact To Further Expand City Center's Global Reach

Already a force in the fight against AIDS in Africa, the University of
Maryland's Institute of Human Virology is expanding its reach to Asia with
an agreement to help China keep its emerging epidemic from exploding into
one of the world's largest.

Under the agreement, to be signed today at its annual conference in
Baltimore, the institute will assist China in finding appropriate drug
treatments and efficient ways of getting them to patients.

The pact also calls for Baltimore doctors to train Chinese physicians in
the care of people with AIDS and for China to send young researchers to
work in the institute's laboratories on West Lombard Street.

Scientists from both countries will join forces in finding a long-sought
AIDS vaccine as well as new treatments that could include combinations of
Western drugs and traditional Chinese medicines.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful for the long-term peace, prosperity and health if
both parts of the globe came together to solve this problem?" said Dr.
Robert C. Gallo, the institute's director and co-discoverer of the virus
that causes AIDS.

Gallo said the center also plans to sign a commercial agreement next month
with the Chinese government and CK Life Sciences, a Hong Kong
pharmaceutical company. The parties hope to develop marketable therapies
and share in royalties.

Today's agreement comes as Chinese health authorities increasingly reach
out for expertise in grappling with a disease that arrived more than a
decade later than it did in the United States, Africa and some other parts
of the world.

China documented its first case of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in
the mid-1980s, but the epidemic took off in the mid-1990s - fueled then by
the sale of contaminated blood products. More recently, intravenous drug
use, prostitution and general sexual activity have abetted the epidemic.

The World Health Organization estimates that fewer than eight out of every
10,000 Chinese are infected with the AIDS virus - a tiny fraction of the
rates seen in some African countries. Chinese authorities estimate that
840,000 people there are infected with HIV.

But experts fear that the disease could overwhelm China if the country
doesn't develop effective strategies to contain it soon. Some predict that
the world's most populous nation - with more than 1.25 billion people -
could also have the world's largest AIDS caseload within the next decade.

"Control and prevention is not just a short battle, it's a long war," said
Dr. Yiming Shao, chief expert with China's National Center for AIDS/STD
Control and Prevention. "With scientific support we can sustain the war
against AIDS."

Gallo and Dr. Wang Yu, director of China's Center for Disease Control, are
scheduled to sign the pact this morning in a ceremony at the Baltimore
Marriott Waterfront.

Founded by Gallo in 1996, the institute is the latest of several U.S.
research institutions to join China's fight against AIDS. Others include
the Johns Hopkins University, University of North Carolina and Harvard
University.

"They are looking for top, world-class advice from different sources," said
Joel Rehnstrom, who heads China programs for the United Nations AIDS effort.

UNC's program focuses primarily on public health measures to control the
spread of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. Hopkins is testing a
medication designed to get addicts off heroin and, consequently, to keep
them from spreading the human immunodeficiency virus through the sharing of
dirty needles.

Today's pact may be the first between an entire institution and Chinese
health authorities, Shao said. Most of the others "are scientist to
scientist in different areas."

Critics say the Chinese government came late to the battle, refusing to
publicly acknowledge the epidemic until just a few years ago.

But Dr. Myron Cohen, a UNC researcher who works with the Chinese government
on AIDS issues, rejected that view. He noted that U.S. reaction to AIDS was
far from swift in the early 1980s and that China's epidemic didn't take off
until much later.

Cohen said Gallo's involvement is important because of his eminence as an
AIDS researcher. Also, he said, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the
institute's clinical program, is a world authority in the management of
patients on anti-HIV drugs. "The Chinese will benefit enormously," he said.

The collaboration will cost about $7 million over three years, with funding
from the Chinese and U.S. governments, and outside sources that have yet to
be found, according to Dave Wilkins, the institute's chief operating officer.

One of the institute's central roles will be to help China find drug
combinations that are most suitable for its population, Redfield said. In
the U.S., therapy often consists of three-drug "cocktails" chosen from more
than 20 drugs now available. China has access to a half-dozen anti-HIV
medications, although more might soon be available.

Although U.S. doctors often delay the start of antiretroviral therapy until
the virus has suppressed a patient's immune system, that might not be the
right answer in China, Redfield said. A key consideration is how to keep
patients from developing resistance to one or more drugs, a problem that
can force doctors to prescribe other drugs.

From the start, the Institute of Human Virology's main focus was on basic
research into HIV infection and the development of treatments and vaccines.

But over the past two years, its scope broadened considerably with the
federal government awarding more than $77 million to help deliver drugs to
patients in hard hit areas of Africa and the Caribbean.

The pact with China further expands its international focus, although the
institute intends to function more as a scientific collaborator than as a
relief group.

Gallo said it is difficult to say how far the institute's relationship with
China will grow.

"It would be wonderful to say this is going to be enormous and big and
historical. I don't know what will happen," he said, explaining that
funding could determine the extent of the partnership.