Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - December 27, 1998
Eric Rosenberg - Examiner Washington Bureau
Approximately 40 AIDS vaccines are being studied around the world and three of them already show promise, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading AIDS expert.
The vaccine closest to winning approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration is AIDSVax, manufactured by VaxGen Inc. of South San Francisco.
AIDSVax is now in a large-scale Phase III clinical trial, the final hurdle before FDA approval. The vaccine is derived from a genetically engineered protein, called gp-120, that is a copy of a protein found in the HIV virus. After being injected into a human, the vaccine sparks the immune system to create HIV antibodies. The Phase III test will determine whether those antibodies attack the HIV virus.
Another vaccine is produced by the U.S. subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical company Pasteur-Merieux Connaught. The Swiftwater, Pa.-based firm is exploring a so-called vectored vaccine, which uses a harmless virus - canary pox - that has been injected with HIV genes. When injected into human subjects, the resulting brew stimulates the body's immune system to produce antibodies.
This approach has been tested on a small number of people and is currently in Phase II clinical trials with a larger group of test subjects. "Early results have been encouraging," Fauci noted.
The FDA will decide next year whether to allow Pasteur to conduct a Phase III clinical trial involving thousands of human volunteers.
A third test centers on the so-called "naked DNA vaccine" being developed by Wyeth-Lederle Vaccines of Madison, N.J. This approach involves injecting a small amount of the DNA of the HIV virus into a person's muscle in order to prompt the immune system to recognize the invader and develop antibodies that protect the body. "Preliminary data look pretty good," Fauci said. Other vaccines under development include vaccines that use either "whole killed" HIV virus or live HIV virus or HIV protein fragments or man-made viruses to stimulate the immune system.
Scientists disagree over whether any of the vaccines will be successful. Fauci contends that the 2007 deadline is within reach. "We are well-positioned to meet this goal with the extraordinary basic and applied research that is now underway," Fauci told an immunization conference last summer.
But Dr. R. Scott Hitt, chairman of Clinton's advisory council on HIV and AIDS, said he believes that a working vaccine "is not going to happen in 10 years without a stroke of luck or intensification of efforts to coordinate."
Sam Avrett, the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, said that despite the scientific activity, only slow progress is being made.
"We're probably a decade or two away from an effective vaccine that could be distributed throughout the world," Avrett said.
A 1998 report by the National Institutes of Health cautions that finding an effective AIDS vaccine is a tremendous undertaking.
"The only prediction one can make about development of an AIDS vaccine is the same one that can be made for the development of any vaccine - the path will not be straight and much will be learned in the various disciplines of vaccinology in the process," the report said.
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