Corzine reintroduces bill to fund HIV microbicide research

Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) on Thursday reintroduced bipartisan legislation that would increase federal funding for HIV microbicide research and create a Microbicide Research and Development Branch within the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The bill would increase spending at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the United States Agency for International Development for research on a topical gel that could be used to prevent the transmission of HIV and other diseases through vaginal and anal sex. The government currently spends about $75 million per year on all areas of microbicide research, but Corzine's bill would boost spending to about $775 million over five years. The bill is cosponsored by senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). Corzine first introduced the bill in November 2001, but it never made it to a full Senate vote.