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Is Tobacco the Next Anti-HIV Weapon?

The tobacco plant could soon redeem itself in the eyes of public health experts, say scientists who are producing huge amounts of a powerful but prohibitively expensive HIV drug inside modified tobacco leaves.

"This is very significant news," said Polly Harrison, Director of the Alliance for Microbicide Development, who was not involved with the research.

"So often it's difficult to make enough of a promising drug to even do laboratory studies, but here production is at a level that allows them to literally make tons of the drug," said Harrison.

Scientists have known for years that the drug, known as griffithsin, protects some people from HIV infection by stopping the virus from colonizing the vaginal lining.

What has prevented griffithsin from becoming a standard HIV preventive measure is the cost of producing it.