AIDS Vaccine Found To Cut Risk of Getting HIV

BANGKOK, Thailand (TheStreet) -- An investigational HIV vaccine combination was found to be safe and modestly effective in preventing HIV infection in a phase III clinical trial in Thailand.

Health officials from the U.S. and Thailand said Thursday the vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31%. The result came from the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand.

The tests looked at a prime-boost vaccine combination of ALVAC, developed by the vaccine division of France's Sanofi-Aventis(SNY), and AIDSVAX, originally developed by U.S. company Vaxgen(VXGN.OB), but which is now held by Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases, a nonprofit group founded by some former VaxGen employees.

Further details of the $105 million study will be given at a vaccine conference in Paris in October.

"Albeit modest, the reduction of risk of HIV infection is statistically significant. This is the first concrete evidence, since the discovery of the virus in 1983, that a vaccine against HIV is eventually feasible," said Michel DeWilde, a senior vice president for Sanofi Pasteur, in a statement Thursday. He said, "Further work is required to develop and test a vaccine suitable for licensure and worldwide use."

The study was led by the U.S. Army, which sponsored it with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The Thailand Ministry of Public health conducted the study, which used strains of HIV common in Thailand.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

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