Major Aids vaccine trial for SA
15 November 2005
Seventy-eight healthy South Africans are to test a new candidate HIV vaccine over the next 18 months.
The International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and a United States company need to determine if the medication is safe and effective.
On Monday, IAVI and Targeted Genetics Corporation announced the start of a phase two trial in South Africa to test the safety and immunogenicity - degree to which a substance induces an immune response - of tgAAC09, a vaccine candidate based on HIV subtype C, which is most prevalent in southern and eastern Africa.
This is the first phase two HIV vaccine trial to be held in South Africa. Candidate vaccines proven to be safe in phase one trials move on to second-phase trials, allowing investigators to test the immune response and get more data on safety.
IAVI is a global non-profit organisation working to develop a vaccine against HIV. Founded in 1996 and operational in 23 countries, IAVI and its network of collaborators research and develop vaccine candidates.
The vaccine
The vaccine candidate, tgAAC09, uses a recombinant viral vector. TgAAC09 is designed to induce two types of immune response: an antibody response and a cell-mediated response. The vaccine is made from an artificial copy of the HI virus and cannot cause HIV infection or Aids.
The trial will be conducted at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, the Desmond Tutu Institute for HIV Research at the University of Cape Town, and at the Medunsa Campus of the University of Limpopo.
"We are pleased that South Africa has taken a leading role in the testing of vaccine candidates, given the medical and humanitarian promise a preventive vaccine holds," said Dr Eftyhia Vardas of Baragwanath, the national protocol chair of the trial.
South Africa approved its first HIV vaccine trials in 2003. In 1999, the government created the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative (Saavi) to coordinate the research, development and testing of HIV vaccines. Saavi is the national coordinating body for vaccine research in South Africa, working with both national and international partners.
"Developing an Aids vaccine for the regions of the world in greatest need will take many more innovative partnerships like this one given the difficult scientific challenges we face," said IAVI president Seth Berkley.
"Preventive vaccines have ended or helped control the most deadly infectious diseases known to man. Finding a vaccine to stop the spread of the HIV virus must be a global priority."
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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