First AIDS vaccine in final testing stages

From Rea Blakey
CNN Medical Unit

An AIDS vaccine is in the final stages of human testing.

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VIDEO CNN's Rea Blakey reports that if the current AIDS vaccine proves successful it could be ready in the United States by about 2005. (December 1) PLAY VIDEO

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As people around the globe mark World AIDS Day on Sunday, the race to create the world's first effective AIDS vaccine is coming down to the wire.

The situation is critical: Every day in 2002, an estimated 14,000 people worldwide are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health. About 2,000 of them are children under age 15, the organizations say.

"We're in a situation where, unless we can really sharply cut down on the transmissibility, the toll of HIV/AIDS is going to go well beyond what anyone could have imagined a few years ago," said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.

Many experts say they believe the best way to stop the spread of AIDS is with a vaccine, but so far there is none. However, that may change soon.

Dr. Don Francis with the California-based company VaxGen is leading the way in developing a vaccine. After seven years of testing, Francis plans to finish the final stage of human testing for Food and Drug Administration approval in January.

Dr. Don Francis says he would be pleased with an AIDS vaccine that is 30 percent effective.

No vaccine is 100 percent effective, but Francis said he would be pleased with a success rate far lower than that figure.

"There's certainly very good data out there in computer models that a 30 percent effective vaccine will ultimately drive the epidemic into the ground," Francis said.

Assuming the final stages of human testing are successful and the FDA approves the vaccine, the next hurdle would be getting it licensed and manufactured, which Francis said would take "another couple of years."

During that time, researchers may concentrate on making different versions of the vaccine to treat different strains of HIV.

"It'll take us a year and a half, two years to do that, and think about how many infections are going to occur in that year and a half, two years while we're developing this African vaccine," Francis said.

If everything stays on schedule and the current vaccine proves successful, it will be ready for use in the United States by about 2005.

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