<http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/18/healthscience/18vaccine.php>:
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Plans for a large human trial of a promising government-developed HIV
vaccine in the United States were canceled Thursday because a top
federal official said scientists realized that they did not know
enough about how HIV vaccines and the immune system interact.
The decision is a major setback in an effort to develop an HIV vaccine
that began 24 years ago when government health officials promised a
marketed vaccine by 1987. Health officials have long contended that
such a vaccine would be their best weapon to control the AIDS
pandemic.
A number of other HIV vaccines are in various stages of testing around
the world. But there had been high hopes for the government's trial
because the potential vaccine was among a new class that sought to
stimulate the immune system in a different way.
The official who canceled the government trial, Dr. Anthony Fauci,
director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
said it was becoming clearer that more fundamental research and animal
testing would be needed before an HIV vaccine was ever marketed.
Scientists say that developing a vaccine against HIV is one of the
most difficult scientific endeavors in history because of the uncanny
nature of the virus.
[..]
The trial canceled Thursday was supposed to have started enrolling
8,500 volunteers last October to receive the PAVE vaccine, developed
by the infectious diseases agency. PAVE is a consortium of federal
agencies and key federally financed organizations involved in
developing and evaluating experimental HIV vaccines. It seeks to
create an effective HIV vaccine that no pharmaceutical company or
institution is likely to accomplish on its own.
The PAVE trial had been postponed after a test of the Merck vaccine
failed in its two main objectives: to prevent infection and to lower
the amount of HIV in the blood among those who became infected. Also,
the findings among the 3,000 participants in nine countries in which
the Merck vaccine was tested suggested it might have increased the
risk of becoming infected.
After a safety monitoring committee detected the problems with the
Merck vaccine in September, the company quickly halted its study.
Scientists have found no obvious explanation for the failure of the
Merck vaccine, which had been considered the most promising candidate.
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<http://www.hiv-poz.co.uk/>
4,935 days and counting...
