An AIDS Vaccine by 2007? Not Likely, Say Participants

May 18 marked the one-year anniversary of President Bill Clinton's pledge--some say more politically motivated than realistic--that there will be an AIDS vaccine by the year 2007. READY FOR PHASE III: Donald Francis of VaxGen is ready for Phase III trials of its AIDS vaccine to begin. The field of AIDS vaccine research has been and remains acrimonious. The basic researchers who insist on proof of immune response prior to large clinical trials disagree with the vaccine researchers whose experi

Myrna Watanabe

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READY FOR PHASE III: Donald Francis of VaxGen is ready for Phase III trials of its AIDS vaccine to begin.

The field of AIDS vaccine research has been and remains acrimonious. The basic researchers who insist on proof of immune response prior to large clinical trials disagree with the vaccine researchers whose experience tells them that the proof of a vaccine's efficacy comes with those large clinical trials. The latter group maintains that many people don't understand the immune correlates of any vaccines currently in use and an AIDS vaccine is being held to a higher standard.

Some of those involved in policy issues question whether the National Institutes of Health, the nation's designated lead organization for direction of AIDS vaccine research, is up to this task or whether oversight should come from another direction--perhaps the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP).

No matter where people stand in ...

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