Other companies, including Pfizer and Schering-Plough, started developing drugs to target the gene, called CCR5.

FORBES: Innovation

"Very senior management said I should stop working on integrase and start working on CCR5 inhibitors, " Hazuda says.

FORBES: Innovation

But she insisted the right target was integrase, part of the virus, not CCR5, which is part of the patient.

FORBES: Innovation

He added that gene therapy to knock out the mutation of the key CCR5 receptor was a possibility for future treatment.

BBC: Bone marrow 'cures HIV patient'