Don't Expect AIDS Vaccine Before 2009, Experts Say

A vaccine against HIV, which infects 15,000 people a day worldwide, will not be available until at least 2009, experts said Wednesday. According to Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), there are numerous obstacles and few drugs in the pipeline after the failure of the AIDSVAX trials earlier this year. "The earliest date to get a vaccine and a license is probably 2009," said Berkley. Trials for one or two potential vaccines should begin in 2004 or 2005 and would last four or five years, Berkley said. As HIV leaves no survivors, it has stumped researchers, giving them no antibodies to examine. The virus also varies regionally, presenting a problem for companies wanting to run tests. "We don't know if we need a single vaccine or a cocktail of vaccines or whatever," said Wayne Koff, IAVI's senior vice president for research and development. "We think the next major advance is to find something that works a little bit so the rest of the field can build on it."

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