Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - February 27, 2003
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi
"The AidsVax results should be interpreted cautiously because they are based on very small samples," said Dwip Kitayaporn of Mahidol University's faculty of tropical medicine.
VaxGen Inc on Monday said that while initial results of its three-year multi-national randomised phase III trial did not show a statistically significant cut in HIV infection within the study population as a whole, it showed a significant reduction in certain vaccinated groups.
The vaccine was tried on 50,000 volunteers. Initial results revealed that it was only 3.8% effective, although the results showed a 78% cut in HIV infection among black volunteers.
Dr Dwip said the black volunteers could have been exposed to a different subtype of the Aids virus.
If there was a racial difference in responses to the candidate vaccine, a large-scale trial of a similar vaccine in Thailand this year should help.
VaxGen's Vaccine, which is expected to go into a phase III trial with 16,000 volunteers, will be tested in Rayong and Chon Buri. It is slightly different from the candidate vaccine tried in the US.
The UNAids and World Health Organisation said the trial results were an important step forward.
"These results are promising. The trial provides clear evidence that a vaccine can work," said Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS.
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