Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Sunday November 29, 1998
Patricia Reaney

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a New York-based independent non-profit organization, said it was investing $9.1 million in two research projects working on vaccines against the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

Seth Berkley, the president of IAVI, said the two new vaccine technologies were among the most promising in the world and offered the best chance of fighting the disease that has infected 33.4 million people worldwide.

"We need a much wider vaccine pipeline," he told a news conference. "Only a vaccine has any chance of ending the global epidemic."

Antiretroviral drugs have prolonged the lives of sufferers in the West but the drugs are too expensive for most people in the developing world where 95 percent of all HIV patients now live.

Berkley emphasized the importance of getting several vaccine projects up and rolling simultaneously because it will take at least five to seven years before scientists know if one works.

Both partnership agreements, he added, involve provisions to ensure that the benefits of the research are available in the developing world. The two research projects were deemed the best vaccine candidates by a team of experts on IAVI's scientific advisory committee.

"They are far enough along in the development process that we should be able to test them quickly in humans," said Dr Jaap Goudsmit, the chairman of the committee.

The Oxford-Nairobi project, led by Professor Andrew McMichael of Oxford University and Dr J.J. Bwayo of the University of Nairobi, is developing two vaccines designed to act together.

Researchers hope the combination will stimulate the killer T-cells in the immune system to fight the HIV virus.

Both vaccines are from strains of the HIV virus in Kenya. There are several different strains around the world.

"The idea is to get the T-cells up and running before the virus takes hold," said McMichael.

He told the news conference he hopes to begin the first trials on 10 British volunteers in about a year. If all goes well there will be follow-up trials in Kenya.

The second project is a collaboration between scientists at the University of Capetown and the Medical Research Council of South Africa and AlphaVax Corp in Durham, North Carolina.

Their vaccine will be based on strains of the virus from South Africa. Until now most vaccine candidates have been based on strains in North American and Europe. Berkley said that despite years of research only one vaccine has moved into efficacy trials in the United States. Although dozens of potential vaccines are being tested only AIDSVAX is in human trials.

IAVI, which was formed two years ago to advance progress in vaccines against AIDS, plans to launch up to six vaccine projects. It is supported by the British government, the National AIDS Trust in Britain, UNAIDS, the World Bank and private and corporate funding.
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