Miami Herald - July 13, 2004
Fred Tasker, ftasker@herald.com

BANGKOK, Thailand - Worldwide efforts to create an AIDS vaccine have grown dramatically in the past two years but still fall far short of what is needed to succeed, leaders of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative said Monday.

"The efforts are not of a great enough magnitude to solve the crisis," said Dr. Seth Berkley, IAVI's president and CEO. "And last year there were more new HIV infections [worldwide] than ever before."

The most serious vaccine candidate, AidsVax, which recently finished final human trials in the United States, Europe and Thailand, proved to be a disappointment.

Berkeley called for a redoubling of efforts, saying the $650 million a year spent on vaccine research amounts to less than 1 percent of what the world spends on medical research. He announced a Vaccine Blueprint 2004 that calls for $1.3 billion a year.

VACCINE TRIALS

Scientists agree that an anti-HIV vaccine is possible, said Dr. Wayne Koff, IAVI's chief of research. In fact, 30 candidate vaccines are in human trials in 19 countries -- twice the number of four years ago.

Two promising vaccines are in or approaching widespread human trials, Koff said. ALVAC, by Aventis, began testing in Thailand last fall; an-as-yet unnamed drug by Merck is to start major human trials by year's end.

Even a 50-percent-effective vaccine given to two-thirds of the world's adult population could reduce infections by up to 60 percent, Berkley said -- reversing the worldwide advance of AIDS. Also, vaccines, which need be given only once or twice, are vastly cheaper than AIDS-fighting drugs taken for a lifetime.

In a pre-conference phone interview, Donald Francis, CEO of VaxGen, the company that tested AidsVax, said creating an effective AIDS vaccine is turning out to be harder than researchers had believed.

"Scientifically, we don't know exactly what vaccine is needed. You never do; this field has always been somewhat empirical. I think we will be successful, but it will take a long time."

AREA OF NEGLECT

One of the ironies of AIDS, he said, is that while it's better to prevent AIDS rather than treat it after infection, it has been far easier to get nations to spend money on treatment than on pursuing preventive vaccines.

"It's a marketing failure," Francis said. "You hear people screaming for anti-viral medicines for Africa, but nobody is screaming for a vaccine."

But progress is being made. At a June summit in Sea Island, Ga., the industrialized nations of the Group of Eight -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia -- issued a joint statement setting up a Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise to speed development of a vaccine. President Bush said the United States will spend $15 million next year on the project.

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