Together with his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, the Frenchman had researched the immune deficiency disease virus and laid the foundations for AIDS drugs.
Luc Montagnier received the Nobel Prize for his research on AIDS.
(dpa) The Nobel Prize winner and French discoverer of the AIDS pathogen HIV, Luc Montagnier, is dead. The doctor died at the age of 89, as the Ministry of Science in Paris announced on Thursday. Montagnier received the 2008 Nobel Prize together with his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi. Both had isolated the immunodeficiency virus in samples from seriously ill patients at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in the early 1980s. The discovery also paved the way for modern AIDS drugs.
Montagnier had long argued with the US virologist Robert Gallo about the discovery of HIV and patents. However, the Nobel Committee assumed that it could be taken for granted that the discovery had been made in France. Montagnier applied for the patent for the first AIDS test six months before Gallo, who was granted it earlier by the US patent office. The dispute was not settled until 1994.
In recent years, Montagnier has made a name for himself with scientifically controversial theses that have eroded his earlier reputation. He questioned the effectiveness of the corona vaccinations and warned of possible long-term side effects.