Can antibodies from a goat cure HIV? Robert Cowan thinks so, and he wants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to butt out so he can test it. The Oklahoma PWA, who said his body can’t tolerate available therapies—“protease inhibitors have almost killed me twice”—desperately wants to use the unapproved serum, made from a goat inoculated with HIV. The FDA said Cowan cannot sample the goods, developed by his doc, Gary Davis, until Davis fulfills the agency’s testing requirements. But Cowan, who’s had HIV for eight years, said his situation warrants an emergency waiver. “I could come out crazy as a loon, but I trust my doctor and I believe in this serum. I’m doing this to save my own ass.” If he can’t get the waiver, Cowan will seek a court restraining order against the FDA. “If I have to get down and crawl on my own hands and knees to the Supreme Court,” he said, “that is what I’ll do.” Davis said the FDA has no right to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. “This man is fighting for his life. The FDA dragged me into this.”
