E-drug: HIV vaccines & drugs in Africa
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[copied from our sister conference PROCAARE (which discusses HIV and
AIDS related issues]
[Three releases from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative]
HIV VACCINES DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS eeMUST INCREASEAE
African nations need to lobby for increased vaccine R&D
Abidjan, 9 December 1997 - Inadequate funding and lack of political will is
delaying the development of HIV vaccines, warned experts meeting at the 7th
International Conference on STD/AIDS in Africa.oUnfortunately, the world-wide
effort for HIV vaccine development has been low priority compared to that for
drugs and basic science. There has been relatively little effort directed at
the development of vaccines overall and almost none targeted to vaccines
appropriate for use in developing countriesoe said Dr Seth Berkley, President
of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. oThe pharmaceutical industry
who is the primary force behind the development of vaccines sees many
non-scientific obstacles to vaccine development and without new
incentives, the rapid development of a vaccine for Africa remains a pipedream.oe
Researchers are increasingly confident that an HIV vaccine is scientifically
possible, but the development of HIV vaccine candidates remains very slow.
Over 25 candidate vaccines have been developed and tested for safety in humans
but none of them have gone into efficacy trials.
oNew evidence from UNAIDS tells us that 7.4% of all those aged between 15 and
49 years living in sub-Saharan Africa are now infected with HIV, making it by
far the most seriously affected area of the world,oe said Dr Berkley.
oThe majority of new infections are still occurring in African countries.
oThe best solution to this terrible pandemic is a vaccine. While prevention
programmes have a vital role, they can only hope to slow down the rate of
spread of HIV. Only investment in a successful vaccine - which must be
usable, accessible and affordable by African countries - will be capable of
stopping the HIV pandemic.oe
IAVI is calling for political pressure and funding to speed up vaccine
development. In addition, IAVI is asking donors to work with African
countries to create a plan to provide a commercially viable market for HIV
vaccines. This could be done through grants or loans and would demonstrate
to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries that it would pay to make
a vaccine for Africa. oIf we can show that there is a world-wide market of
$1 billion a year for a successful HIV vaccine usable in lower-income
countries, then there will be a vital incentive for rapid vaccine
development by the private sector,oe he said. As they have the best
technology, this is the fastest way forward.
There was also a warning about the limited usefulness of the new
generation of anti-viral treatments for HIV. oThe new antiviral
combination drug treatments do not work well for everyone. Resistance is
already a developing problem in Europe and North America, and will become a
problem wherever these drugs are used,oe said Margaret Johnston, PhD,
Scientific Director of IAVI.
oRecent studies have also shown that these treatments have not eliminated
HIV from the body, which means that it is likely that any person using
these therapies will have to take them for the rest of their lives. These
issues, added to the cost of these therapies and the non availability in most
parts of Africa of the sophisticated monitoring required for the effective
use of these drugs, means that these therapeutics cannot be counted on as a
way to end the epidemic. A preventive vaccine remains the best hope for
halting the spread of HIV.oe
IAVI, set up in 1996 with the help of the Rockefeller Foundation, the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, UNAIDS, Until ThereAEs A Cure Foundation, the
World Bank, Fondation Marcel M_rieux, and other organizations and individuals,
is dedicated to ensuring the development of safe, effective, accessible,
HIV preventive vaccines for use throughout the world. IAVI particularly
focuses on developing a vaccine which would be usable in middle- and
lower-income countries, which are showing the most rapid increases in HIV
infection.
IAVI believes that targeted vaccine development funding could cause a rapid
increase in the number of HIV vaccines entering efficacy trials - though this
should not be at the cost of current treatment and prevention programs.
Without a perfect animal model or clinical correlates of protection, it is
only through a process of testing vaccines that we will elucidate the most
promising approaches for future vaccine development. Moving forward and
testing the most promising candidates in the pipeline now will either lead us
to one of these candidates as an effective vaccine or will give us the
clues to develop one.
oIf African countries can generate the political will to make funds for
vaccine development a priority, then an HIV vaccine will be possible within
the next decade. Without a push, however, further delay is inevitable,oe
Dr Berkley concluded. oThis is totally unacceptable for a disease which we
now believe infects 16,000 people worldwide every day.oe
[ENDS]
Further information: Contact Dr Seth Berkley at IAVI on +1 212 655 0201,
or e-mail <sberkley@iavi.org>. For French-speaking journalists, contact
Claire Olivier at Interscience on +44 171 331 0331, or e-mail
<claire@interscience.co.uk>.
If you wish to receive IAVI Report, the first quarterly publication
devoted to HIV vaccine research, please send or fax your name and address
to Eileen Wilson at the address below or e-mail at IAVI at
<info@iavi.org>.
Chirac Launches Urgent Call For AIDS Vaccine at African Meeting
In a strongly-worded indictment of the failure of industrialised countries
to respond to the AIDS epidemic, President Jacques Chirac today called for
massive new efforts to bring a preventative vaccine and better treatment to
Africa. oWe do not have the right to accept that there should be two
different ways of combating AIDS: treating AIDS sufferers in the developed
countries while doing nothing more than preventing the spread of the pandemic
in the Southoe the French president said. He was speaking at
the opening ceremonies of the 10th International Conference on AIDS and
Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa.
The President stressed that a vaccine to prevent infection by HIV, the virus
which causes AIDS, was the only way to eradicate the disease in a continent
so badly affected by the disease. oI realise how difficult it is to develop
a vaccine but this is a goal of such overwhelming importance that everything
must be done to achieve it.oe he said. He stressed that France would do
whatever was required to secure the backing of its European partners and the
rest of the G8 conference of leading economic powers in its efforts to find a
vaccine and promote access to treatment. He promised that he would push hard
for concrete action at the next meeting of the group in Birmingham, England
in May of 1998.
Chirac proposed a new osolidarity fundoe which would pool contributions from
the European countries. He said that Europeans must channel their
development assistance to promote vaccines and treatment.
Other leaders of the AIDS movement reinforced the need for a vaccine.
Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on AIDS, said,
oitAEs very clear that if we want to stop this epidemic, we need a vaccinea
We need a very close relationship between the public sector and the
pharmaceutical industry which has the expertise to develop such a vaccine.oe
Professor Auguste Kadio, chairman of the Scientific Committee of the
conference said that he hoped that the commitment to vaccines by US President
Bill Clinton would lead to rapid results. Professor Luc Montaignier, the
discoverer of the HIV virus, said, ovaccine research is essential if we
are to overcome AIDS."
The European activist movement issued a stern warning to governments which
failed to fund vaccine research. oWe will hold them to account,oe said Raffi
Babakhanian, a member of the Board of Directors of the European Aids
Treatment Group. oThe EATG strongly believes that the gains in HIV treatment
would be paralleled by gains in HIV vaccines if the governments of
industrialised countries seriously increased funding for vaccine research.
We have been meeting with the European Commission to ensure that vaccine
research will be a priority during the forthcoming 5th Scientific Framework,oe
he added.
- ENDS -
Chirac Warns Pharmaceutical Industry
Activists attack EU and World Bank
The pharmaceutical industry should make its anti-AIDS drugs available at much
lower prices in developing countries, President Jacques Chirac told a group
of African AIDS experts and activists meeting in C_te DAEIvoire.
Industrialised countries had, he said, already paid enough to allow the
multi-national pharmaceutical companies to recoup most of the costs of
research and development of powerful, new anti-viral medicines. oThe time
has come to look into ways that these products can be made accessible to
people in developing countries,oe he added.
Chirac refuted the notion that multi-drug treatment regimens were impossible
to administer in Africa. Citing the work of outpatient treatment centres in
the continent, he said that it was clear that many communities in Africa
could support those taking up to 25 tablets per day. He conceded that people
with AIDS needed safe food, clean drinking water and decent housing but said
that many were ready to begin using the new medicines which had restored hope.
oMultiple drug therapies have been made available to patients in too small a
number of countries. Not only have these therapies kept people alive who
would in the past have been condemned but they have transformed the lives of
those living with AIDSa It would be shocking and unacceptable a for us to
allow a two-speed epidemic. How could we continue to speak about human
rights and human dignity in international forums whilst, for the best
sounding reasons, allowing millions of AIDS sufferers to remain
permanently deprived of the most effective treatments?oe Chirac asked.
The only long-term solution for Africa, according to the French president, is
a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. oMultiple drug therapies are a great
step forward. They have restored hope but they have not eradicated the evil.
They are not a guaranteed cure. They do not make us safe from AIDS,oe he
said. He committed France to a leading role in marshalling the resources of
the industrialised world for a focused effort to develop a vaccine to prevent
infection by HIV.
Activists condemned an attempt at a consensus on treatment organised by
several international organisations. J_r_me Soletti of the French group
AIDES said that European activists would organise to denounce the
hypocritical statements of international organisations which had promised to
work on making treatment accessible in Africa but which then only spoke about
education and prevention. oWe will react against and combat the murderous
policies of the World Bank and the European Union,oe he said to sustained
applause during a fractious meting which failed to agree on any common
position.
Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on AIDS, announced
pilot programmes designed to make treatments more broadly available in
developing countries. oAfrica, with its 20 million people with HIV, needs
programmes to help those who are infected and sick a At a cost of ten to 15
thousand dollars per year, per person and with the complexity of the
treatment, this can never be generalised and is not a solution to the
problem,"" he said. President Chirac said that the UNAIDS pilots should be
rapidly expanded to cover many more people.
- ENDS -
IAVI LAUNCHES WWW AIDS VACCINE
INFORMATION CENTER
Manila, Monday 27 October 1997 - At the 4th International Congress on AIDS in
Asia and the Pacific, Dr Seth Berkley, President of the International AIDS
Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), announced the launch of a new HIV vaccine
information center on the World-Wide Web (WWW) at <http://www.iavi.org>.
oWe hope that this Internet-based resource will act as a focus for
scientists, physicians, activists, the aid and development community, UN
organisations - in fact, anyone who is concerned about the rapid development
of an HIV vaccine usable the world over,oe he said.
oI am particularly heartened by the growth of the Internet in medium- and
lower-income countries, where information on vaccine development has
previously often been difficult to access. We hope that <www.iavi.org> will
become a feature of World-Wide Web browser bookmarks the world over.oe
Among other elements, the site includes key documents, an outline of IAVIAEs
scientific program, international partnerships, what IAVI is doing on global
advocacy for vaccine development and the current and prior editions of the
quarterly newsletter IAVI Report. The site was designed and produced by
Paramax Productions, Inc.
[ENDS]
KEYWORDS: INTERNATIONAL AIDS VACCINE INITIATIVE, VACCINE, AFRICA
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