National HIV Prevention Conference Atlanta, Georgia, USA — July 27 - 30, 2003

Natl HIV Prev Conf 2003 July 27-30:abstract no. M1-C0202
Johnston MI; National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

Identifying a safe and effective HIV vaccine is among the highest priorities of the US effort to combat HIV/AIDS worldwide. Yet progress in advancing candidate vaccines into efficacy trial has been slow, with one efficacy trial only recently completed. Several candidate vaccines that control AIDS-like infection in animal models are now in or soon to be in phase I studies. Knowledge of the impact of these vaccines against human disease and HIV transmission are still years away. To accelerate HIV vaccine development, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense have joined forces to help develop the infrastructure to evaluate a number of candidate vaccines in collaboration with developing country scientists, and to make data-driven decisions on how best to utilize government resources to ensure that qualified candidates proceed to efficacy trial as quickly as possible, while ensuring that the rights and safety of human subjects remain protected and that the clinical trial data will meet the standards required of any regulatory agency worldwide. Lessons learned in the conduct of registrational trials in developing country settings will be shared, along with plans to advance candidate vaccines into efficacy trials in the coming few years. HHS involvement in follow-up of and lessons learned from the VAX003 trial will also be overviewed. Finally, efforts to improve HIV vaccine design, including identification of candidates that induce broadly neutralizing antibodies, and to develop even stronger private-public partnerships will be presented.

030727
M1-C0202

Copyright notice: The National HIV Prevention Conference is collaborative effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a U.S. Government agency and other governmental and non-government organizations. All abstracts published in by the conference organizers are in the public domain and can be used without permission. Proper citation, however, is required.