AEGiS-WSJ: Glaxo, AIDS Group to Develop Vaccine Made From HIV Genes Wall Street JournalImportant note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Glaxo, AIDS Group to Develop Vaccine Made From HIV Genes

Wall Street Journal - June 22, 2005
Marilyn Chase, marilyn.chase@wsj.com

In an effort to speed up the laggardly pace of AIDS vaccine development, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative have struck a partnership to develop a vaccine made from HIV genes loaded inside a chimpanzee virus.

Under the pact -- the first between the IAVI, a not-for-profit group, and a global vaccine company -- GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Glaxo's vaccine unit, will contribute vaccine technology licensed from the University of Pennsylvania. The IAVI will contribute its clinical-trial networks, technical expertise and unspecified milestone payments.

Most observers expect it will be at least a decade before a successful AIDS vaccine is ready to use. Of about three dozen candidate AIDS vaccines being tested, only one has reached efficacy tests and it failed to prevent infection.

But with nearly 40 million people now living with HIV/AIDS, and three million deaths a year world-wide, a vaccine is needed to halt what IAVI President Seth Berkeley called "the worst infectious disease epidemic since the 14th century."

Developers hope the Glaxo vaccine will spark the production of immune cells to defend against infection by HIV. The vaccine uses three genes of the AIDS virus, packaged inside a modified cold-like virus derived from chimps.

The chimp adenovirus vaccine will incorporate genes from a strain of HIV circulating in Africa. "If we're lucky, it will work for viruses in other regions," said Gerald Voss, associate director of the HIV program at GSK Biologicals.

Jean Stephenne, president of GSK Biologicals of Rixensart, Belgium, said he looks to the Group of Eight leading nations summit in Scotland next month to forge new funding tools.


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