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Most scientists involved in HIV and AIDS research are pessimistic about a vaccine for the virus ever coming about, according to a poll conducted by UK newspaper The Independent.
Only two out of more than 35 leading AIDS scientists in Britain and the US surveyed are now more optimistic about the prospects for a vaccine than they were a year ago, and only four said they were more optimistic now than they were five years ago.
Nearly two thirds believe that an HIV vaccine will not be developed within the next 10 years, while a substantial majority admitted it may never be developed.
Using animals in research has not worked, most of the scientists concluded, referring to the recent failure of Merck’s failed clinical trial of the most promising prototype vaccine (SX #348).
For more than a decade HIV vaccines have been tested on monkeys or chimps before being used on humans, but though they may appear to work well when tested on those animals infected with an artificial virus, they do not work when tested on human volunteers at risk of HIV.
Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), near Washington, told The Independent that the animal model – which uses genetically engineered simian and human immunodeficiency viruses in a combination, known as SHIV – failed to predict what will happen when a prototype vaccine is transported from laboratory animals to people.
“We’ve learnt a few important things [from the clinical trial]. We’ve learnt that one of the animal models, the SHIV model, really doesn’t predict very well at all,” he said.
ACON’s Director of Client Services, Russell Westacott, told SX: “Developing a vaccine to HIV was always known to be a challenge given the nature of this virus. Treatment development to date is not a cure but enables better management of the virus for those who are already infected.”
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