The hunt for a vaccine against AIDS is about to enter a critical stage, with results in 2008 from large-scale clinical trials of two candidates set to determine the future direction of research.
The hunt for a vaccine against AIDS is about to enter a critical stage, with results in 2008 from large-scale clinical trials of two candidates set to determine the future direction of research.
Although there is a good chance that neither experimental vaccine will provide comprehensive protection, Seth Berkley, head of the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, is optimistic scientists are on the road to developing a viable shot.
Even if today’s vaccines reduce HIV infection rates by only a little, he is confident this would provide a springboard for more effective next-generation products.
HIV is uniquely difficult to vaccinate against, because the virus infects the very immune system cells that are usually stimulated by a vaccine.
Highest hopes are pinned on a vaccine from Merck & Co. Inc.. Expectations are lower for a rival product from Sanofi-Aventis and VaxGen Inc.
"Next year is a pretty important year," Berkley said in an interview ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"If we have an intermediate result, it is still very, very important, because it allows us to validate the animal models and really improve on it."
If the Merck vaccine does not work at all, then other approaches will have to be pursued.
The AIDS virus infects around 40 million people globally, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. It killed an estimated 2.9 million in 2006, according to UNAIDS, the U.N. program on
HIV/AIDS.
The two vaccines now in advanced human testing work by producing cellular immunity, and Berkley said more effort was needed to research other approaches such as neutralizing antibodies.
Nonetheless, he is convinced strides are being made in the laboratory and in the growing number of clinical trials underway in both developed and developing countries.
"Do I think we are going to solve this at the end of the day? Absolutely," Berkley said.
