Biotech Starpharma Holdings Ltd has stated that the first trial of its cin sexually active women has concluded it to be safe.

Starpharma Holdings, an Australian pharmaceutical development company, has received favorable results from a clinical trial of the company's product, which is being developed to prevent transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.

As a part of the trial, which was conducted in the United States and Puerto Rico, VivaGel was administered vaginally, twice a day for 2 weeks in sexually active women, and it was found to be comparable with its matched placebo, in terms of safety and tolerability.

Starpharma commented on the results, "All three groups were found to be comparable in terms of the percentage of women with one or more abnormal genital findings observed by the investigators during a pelvic examination which were related to the study gels".

Funding for the study was provided by the joint efforts of Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division of AIDS, and the National Institutes of Health.

Starpharma is already planning to start more clinical studies of its product.