Soviet Efforts to Make AIDS Drug in Space Reported

LONDON — The Soviet Union is almost certainly experimenting to determine whether a drug to counter the killer disease AIDS can be made in the “super-clean” conditions of space, Jane’s Spaceflight Directory reported Tuesday.

Reginald Turnhill, who edits the respected annual publication, said that work on producing “super-pure” medicines has been carried out aboard Soviet spacecraft, including the Mir space station.

Drugs produced in space are generally free of impurities that occur during production on Earth.

Turnhill said the Soviet Cosmos 1841 satellite, launched April 24 and recovered two weeks later, contained experiments on thymus hormone purification.

One thymic hormone, thymosin, is known to influence the maturation of cells that bolster the body’s immune system. AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, attacks that system.

Moscow’s Institute of Biomedical Technology has not announced any results from the Cosmos 1841 experiments, Turnhill reported.