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Date Posted: 20:39:55 07/24/02 Wed
Author: moonotter
Subject: AIDS Vaccine Still Seen to Be a Long Way off

AIDS Vaccine Still Seen to Be a Long Way off


Reuters Health Information 2002. © 2002 Reuters Ltd.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.


By Stephen Pincock
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters Health) Jul 08 - A vaccine that offers at least partial protection against HIV could be available within a decade, but poor countries will be left without access for years longer unless manufacturing and distribution capacity is built now, a leading researcher said on Saturday.

Dr. Seth Berkley, founder and president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), told a meeting ahead of the 14th International AIDS Conference that an effective vaccine is the only way to end the pandemic, which threatens to kill more than 68 million people between 2000 and 2020.

"From our perspective, we now have a set of reasonable candidates," he told Reuters Health on the sidelines of the meeting. "I would say it's possible we could have a vaccine in as short as 6 months and as long as 5, 7, 10 years."

But the developing world could be left behind again, as it has been with expensive antiretroviral drugs, Dr. Berkley said. Ensuring quick global rollout of a vaccine requires the means of producing large amounts and having the facilities to distribute it.

"The critical issue is, if a vaccine turns out to look good but we don't have the manufacturing facilities, the delivery systems or the financing systems, what will happen is that we'll have [a case of] 'Eureka! This [is a] great advance,' but we won't be able to use it for a very long time.

"If you wait until the day we have a vaccine that works, it'll be five or more years before it gets to the places that need it."

With 15,000 people a day contracting HIV, mostly in the developing world, each month equates to a quarter of a million people missing out on the protection a vaccine might offer, Dr. Berkley said.

"That's not a scientific problem, but a political problem--building the commitment to have what is a new paradigm: simultaneous North-South availability of an AIDS vaccine.

"The challenge for politicians is that vaccines tend to have a longer timeline," he said. "The timeline of the average politician means they're not going to be around when these vaccines appear."

The results of studies with vaccines in early stages of clinical development are expected to be presented during the week-long conference. The most advanced candidate, AIDSVAX developed by the US biotech company VaxGen, has been undergoing final Phase III tests in Thailand and results are expected by the beginning of 2003.

Another phase III trial, of AIDSVAX combined with Aventis Pasteur's ALVAC vaccine, looks likely to go ahead within a year, also in Thailand. Supachai Rerks Ngarm from the Thai Department of Public Health told the meeting that results are expected by around 2006.

Other vaccines are in more preliminary phases, which means proof or otherwise of their effectiveness is more distant.



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