Important note: Information in this article was accurate in January 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date. IAVI Report - January / February 2002
Patricia Kahn
The US Army program on AIDS vaccines will be transferred from the Department of Defense (DoD) to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on 1 October 2002. The move was ordered by the Bush administration’s Office of Management and Budget in a directive issued on 4 January.
Details of the new arrangement are being negotiated and will be formalized in a Memo of Understanding between DoD and NIH.
While the Army program is tiny relative to that of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the government’s lead agency for AIDS research,—its budget for the 2002 fiscal year is US$ 22 million, compared with over US$ 400 million for NIAID—it has nonetheless been an important player in the AIDS vaccine field. Focused on pre-clinical product development and clinical trials (rather than basic research), it has established robust programs at home and in a number of developing countries, through the Bethesda-based Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and its civilian sister institute, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. A Bangkok-based team, working with the Royal Thai Army and other Thai collaborators, has conducted several Phase I and II trials of prime-boost combinations and is expected to launch a Phase III trial later this year. Clinical sites have also been established in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, with plans to move other candidates—based on locally predominant strains—into trials there. The Jackson Foundation is a global leader in monitoring the HIV subtypes and recombinants circulating in many parts of the world.
The Army has a long tradition of vaccine development work in developing countries, and played a major role in finding vaccines against hepatitis A and meningococcal meningitis, and in field-testing several others.
The NIH-DoD agreement under negotiation, which covers the next seven years, would keep the program intact rather than parceling out its individual activities to other NIH groups working in related areas, according to Peggy Johnston, associate director of vaccine and prevention Research at NIAID. At the same time, budgeting and oversight will move to NIAID, which will bring some changes. “The [Army staff] should continue to feel ownership of the program,” says Ed Tramont, head of NIH’s Division of AIDS. “It can be the linchpin for our international efforts. But it will have to respond to a different level of scientific oversight.”
Just how that will work is a major part of the ongoing discussions, which must be concluded before the deal kicks in on 1 October—although the parties seem hopeful that a deal will be sealed within the next few months.—PK
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©2002. The IAVI Report.
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