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HIV/AIDS vaccine 'here soon'
Cape Argus (SA), 15 April 2002 - republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd
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The world could have an AIDS vaccine in five to six years, says Seth Berkley, President and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. There are currently eight AIDS vaccines in the pipeline and Berkley says he is "excited about them all".
The most advanced, in Phase Three trials, was expected to produce results by the end of this year or early next year. Those in Phase Two trials would produce results by 2006 or 2007, and some of those still at the Phase One trial stage would produce their results shortly thereafter.
Berkley, who was in Cape Town for the "Financing Vaccination for Every Child" Conference, stressed that worst-affected countries, including South Africa, should be getting ready for both clinical trials and ensuring access for all to an AIDS vaccine as soon as it became available. Berkley said: "The more vaccine trials we have, the more likely we are to succeed. At this stage we're in very good shape. I am pretty optimistic that we will have a partially or fully effective vaccine in the next five to six years."
He said even a partially effective vaccine would be beneficial because "once we get something we know works, we can work on that". In spite of his optimism, Berkley criticised the world's response to efforts to secure an AIDS vaccine, saying that considering the scope of the pandemic, this had been "grossly inadequate". Pointing to worldwide spending on HIV, estimated in 2001 to be around US$ 20 billion, Berkley said expenditure on vaccines got the smallest slice of the cake. Prevention and care gobbled up 75% to 80% of the funding. "Not enough attention has been paid to a full pipeline of AIDS vaccines and especially those designed for developing countries.
"HIV strains in developing countries are genetically different from those in industrialised nations - and ideally, an AIDS vaccine for developing countries would not only be safe and effective, but also inexpensive to manufacture, stable under field conditions, and easy to transport and administer."
Did he think the South African government's reluctance to supply the anti-AIDS drug Nevirapine might be repeated with an AIDS vaccine? On the contrary, Berkley said, South Africa was one of the world leaders in the support of the AIDS vaccine initiative, in terms of both research and financing. But even South Africa could be doing more proportionately, and one of the most important ways was to prepare the country as far as possible for the start of human vaccine trials, which tended to be controversial as a result of people's lack of understanding.
"Everyone needs to be involved in talking about it ahead of time so we can minimise the inevitable controversy that will occur (around clinical trials)." On the subject of cost, Berkley said there had to be a completely new paradigm; in addition to getting the science right, the world had to ensure simultaneous North-South access to AIDS vaccines. Tiered pricing based on ability to pay was essential. The public sector would however have to step in, Berkley said, but while the cost of vaccination would be high initially, it would be cost-effective, particularly in countries like South Africa with high infection rates. |
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