It was always back burnered. Paul was more interested in cancer. Joe Stavola was a huge proponent, but he and his wife died in the Merritt Parkway when a tree fell on their car. After that, nothing much was done with it until Cytodyn bought it.
Before that, much wasn't done either. The guy I inherited the phase 1 study from hadn't even reviewed trip reports for over a year. The guy who monitored the study said he had a fire in his office and all his original reports got destroyed. When I asked him to make some updates, he refused. No one forced him to do it because he was independent, so I had to file his hard copy reports with my comments.
That's how little was put into the drug before NP championed it. I bought into Cytodyn because of how much the drug meant to Joe.