AEGiS-AP: NIH Official Says AIDS-Vaccine Work Likely to Fall to U.S.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

NIH Official Says AIDS-Vaccine Work Likely to Fall to U.S.

Associated Press - December 27, 2005

WASHINGTON - The federal chief of AIDS research said he believes drug companies don't have an incentive to create a vaccine for the AIDS virus and are likely to wait to profit from it after the government develops one. As a result, the government has had to spend more time focusing on the processes that drug companies ordinarily follow in developing medicines and bringing them to market.

"We had to spend some time and energy paying attention to those aspects of development because the private side isn't picking it up," said Dr. Edmund Tramont in a deposition recently reviewed by the Associated Press. (Dr. Tramont's deposition was part of a lawsuit this summer concerning Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, a medical-safety expert at the National Institutes of Health who allegedly was fired after raising safety concerns about federal AIDS research. Mr. Fishbein's lawyer said on Friday that the NIH had reinstated his client earlier this month.)

Dr. Tramont is head of the NIH's AIDS research division, and he predicted in his testimony that the government will eventually create a vaccine. "... It's not going to be made by a company," he said. "They're dropping out like flies because there's no real incentive for them to do it. We have to do it."

An official of the group representing the nation's major drug companies took exception to Dr. Tramont's comments.

"That is simply not true. America's pharmaceutical research companies are firmly committed to HIV/AIDS vaccine research and development, with 15 potential vaccines in development today," said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

"Vaccine research is crucial to controlling the AIDS pandemic, and our companies are well aware of the need to succeed in this vital area of science," Mr. Johnson said.

In an email response, Dr. Tramont said the HIV vaccine mirrors the history of other vaccines. "It is not just a HIV vaccine -- it's all vaccines -- that is why there was/is a shortage of flu vaccines," he wrote.

The quest for an HIV vaccine has been one of science's biggest disappointments, despite billions of dollars and years of research.

The United Nations' top HIV/AIDS official acknowledged earlier this year at a conference that it was no longer realistic to hope that the world will meet its goal of halting and reversing the spread of the pandemic by 2015.

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