Scientific Consensus on AIDS Vaccine Prospect is Bleak, Poll Reveals

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Scientific consensus on the prospect for development of an effective preventive AIDS vaccine is bleak, according to the results of a poll of AIDS researchers and scientists which was released earlier today. The poll of AIDS scientists offered significant additional credibility to the recent public call by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to halt U.S. government funding of repeatedly failing AIDS vaccine research — which for more than 20 years has shown few results other than how not to develop a vaccine.

“And with thousands of lives lost daily because people around the world lack access to proven, effective and relatively inexpensive prevention and treatment options, it is also the only moral choice.”

In a poll of more than 35 top HIV/AIDS scientists in Great Britain and the U.S. conducted by Britain’s The Independent newspaper, “nearly two-thirds believed that an HIV vaccine will not be developed within the next ten years…” and “a substantial minority of the scientists admitted that an HIV vaccine may never be developed…”

AHF’s call to halt taxpayer funding of AIDS vaccine research first came late last month in an opinion article in the Baltimore Sun published Sunday, March 23, two days before an HIV Vaccine Summit convened by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), met to discuss HIV vaccine funding strategy in the wake of a string of recent, highly publicized clinical trial failures, including Merck’s latest AIDS vaccine candidate, which was abruptly pulled from human clinical trials when it not only failed as a vaccine, but it was found to endanger lives by increasing the likelihood that study participants would contract the virus.

“The results of this poll clearly show scientific consensus on AIDS vaccine development is gloomy at best, and confirms our belief that it is time for an honest re-assessment of all U.S. government funding of AIDS vaccine research,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “I think this poll also underscores an inherent conflict of interest between AIDS vaccine researchers and the public interest — the lack of real scientific validity or promise in continuing such vaccine research, versus the pursuit of generous government research funding that many AIDS scientists and researchers benefit from. Privately to the pollsters, many are bleak in their assessment of vaccine development, yet publicly they continue to proclaim the likelihood of vaccine success and the importance of continuing to pursue — and fund — the search.”

“According to The Independent, among those AIDS researchers and scientists who believe that an AIDS vaccine could appear within the next ten years, many added the caveat that such a vaccine might be unlikely to work as a ‘truly effective prophylactic against infection by the virus,’ something that would open up entirely new moral and ethical concerns about using such a so-called vaccine,” said Homayoon Khanlou, M.D., AHF’s Chief of Medicine/U.S. “What would be an acceptable margin of vaccine efficacy? And who would determine or decide that question? We believe that it is time for an unbiased third party, such as the Government Accountability Office, to step in and review the full history and funding of AIDS vaccine research.”

In “Enough is Enough,” the opinion editorial published in the Baltimore Sun March 23^rd, co-authors Homayoon Khanlou, M.D., AHF’s Chief of Medicine/U.S., and Michael Weinstein, AHF’s President, criticized the ballooning HIV vaccine research budget, stating that “it is time to stop the waste.”

“Suspending U.S. funding for an HIV vaccine and investing in strategies that save lives and stop new infections is the wisest and most effective use of limited public resources,” conclude Dr. Khanlou and Mr. Weinstein. “And with thousands of lives lost daily because people around the world lack access to proven, effective and relatively inexpensive prevention and treatment options, it is also the only moral choice.”

Resources are not limitless. It is time for an honest re-assessment — perhaps through a Government Accountability Office review — and a redeployment of resources to deliver lifesaving antiretroviral AIDS treatments to those in need today.

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the U.S.’ largest non-profit HIV/AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide in the U.S., Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional information is available at www.aidshealth.org