Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 2, 2003
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi
Dr Kachit Choopanya, who heads the Aidsvax vaccine trial on 2,500 former drug users in Bangkok, said he had been unofficially informed that VaxGen Incorporated, which produced the candidate vaccine, would not continue to finance the trial. The preventive vaccine was especially designed with the B/E strain of the Aids virus. Subtype E virus is the most common in Thailand.
The study would continue for the time being because the researchers had not been officially informed by VaxGen it was pulling out, he said.
The US government and the Gates Foundation could step in to help keep the project going. A lot of knowledge had already been gained from the trial.
The vaccine trial, which began with phases I/II in Bangkok in 1998, launched the phase III large-scale trial on 2,500 volunteers recruited from 17 drug rehabilitation clinics in Bangkok on March 1999.
The study is being administered by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Mahidol University's faculty of tropical medicine, HIV/Aids Collaboration (involving the Ministry of Public Health and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) and VaxGen.
In February, VaxGen released the results of the trial in the US, which found the vaccine less than 4% effective.
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