Though Charlie Sheen‘s HIV status has been “completely manageable,” the award-winning actor said he once found a “really good” solution that never came to fruition.
During an appearance on the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast, Sheen, 60, opened up about an experimental drug he once used to manage his HIV and explained why it never made it to the market.
“There was one that was really good that I was hoping would come to market one day, and it never did,” said Sheen, who revealed his HIV status in 2015.
“That was a thing called PRO 140. It was an MAB [monoclonal antibody] that had much … just quicker and I think more stable results with no side effects than the traditional.”
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When asked why it never made it to market, Sheen said, “It’s a threat, I suppose. … It works, better than what they have.”
Sheen said the company that created the medication got into some “hot water,” and when Mandel said that they should “get to the bottom of this,” he agreed.
In his memoir, “The Book of Sheen,” Sheen admitted that despite his “shocking and depressing” status as a person living with HIV, he felt a sense of “relief” once he was diagnosed.
During a recent appearance on “Good Morning America,” the “Two and a Half Men” alum spoke about his past sexual encounters with men and contracting the virus.
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“That’s what started it,” he said, referencing his addiction to crack. “That’s where it was born or sparked. And in whatever chunks of time that I was off the pipe, trying to navigate that, trying to come to terms with it — ‘Where did that come from? Why did that happen? — and then just finally being like, ‘So what?’ So what? Some of it was weird. A lot of it was f—ing fun, and life goes on.”
In 2015, Sheen revealed on the “Today” show that doctors had identified the virus in his blood four years prior, but he was only forced to publicly disclose his status after being blackmailed for millions of dollars.
“I do know for a fact that I never passed it on,” he told People in September.
The “Major League” actor wrote about his attempt to keep his wild, drug-fueled lifestyle private, but after 50 hours of “stabbing, nonstop clusters” of headaches combined with “delirious night sweats that redefined ‘waterbed,'” he was forced to seek medical attention.
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“When they finally got to the bottom of it, and informed me I’d joined the luckless ranks of the hivvers, I didn’t say a word. I found a place way out beyond anything that wanted to be looked at and sent a stare that wouldn’t arrive for a hundred years.
“The relief of knowing an entire discipline of high-tech medicine was at my disposal to drive that bastard [HIV] into submission,” he wrote. “To counterattack the invaders, the doctors loaded their expertise into what seemed like every IV bag in the city.
“The pricey meds couldn’t kill that f—er, but they could keep it from killing my spirit.”
Sheen said he has been sober since 2017 and has never looked back.
“I feel like there’s a solid enough foundation that I’m not going to run into the same pitfalls or succumb to the same appetites,” he told Mandel of the possibility of a relapse. “There’s nothing left. Dope and booze wise, there’s no box left to uncheck. To return to any of that would be complete sabotage. I have no excuse this time around.”
Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright contributed to this post.
