AIDS Vaccine Moves Ahead in Trials

An AIDS vaccine developed with the aim of getting some kind of protection against the infection into Africa as soon as possible will move ahead into the next phase, researchers said on Thursday. The vaccine, being tested by the US-based International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative and Britain's Medical Research Council, appears to have worked safely in the first group of volunteers, researchers said. IAVI did not release specific data about how well the vaccine worked, but said more than half of 26 volunteers vaccinated in Britain showed a strong immune response.

"The approach is looking really good in preliminary data," IAVI chief Dr. Seth Berkeley said. "We are saying it is good enough to move into pivotal phase I/II trials." IAVI has several vaccines in the works that are designed to fight strains of the virus found in Africa and other hard-hit areas. The first volunteers for the new trial were immunized earlier on Thursday in Britain, Berkeley said. "If the results are as good in this larger-scale trial, we will fast-track this into phase III, and we are talking two-and-a-half years," he said.

The vaccine was developed after doctors found a group of prostitutes in Kenya who seemed resistant to the AIDS virus. Their immune systems were studied and the vaccine was designed to simulate their immune response. The vaccine is meant to elicit the same CD8 T-cell response, in the hope that this will protect people against HIV. The vaccine, which is a two-dose combination of DNA from the HIV virus and a modified version of smallpox vaccine, is also being tested in Kenya, but results from that trial will not be available until summer, Berkeley said.

The next phase of testing will involve 100 volunteers in Britain, Berkeley said. If this first IAVI vaccine keeps looking promising, he said, six other formulations the group has in the works can move forward into human trials.

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