NIH AIDS Vaccine Trial Cancelled In US

An experimental AIDS vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health, which was all set to be tested on a large scale, has come a cropper, reason being apprehensions about the merits of proceeding with the experiment. The decision to call of the proposed study was taken at an individual level, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The trial which was to be known as PAVE 100 was initially delayed by Fauci after the failure of the Merck vaccine trial, the last time around. Later, he scaled back the proposed $160 million test.

Supporters of the scaled-back study still hoped to see the green signal, but Fauci rejected the idea in pursuit of designing a still ‘smaller, leaner, meaner’ version of PAVE 100 that would cost less than $45 million, with the help of study designers, of course.

Fauci’s decision came as a surprise to the vaccine advocates who believed that the vaccine was being developed in such a manner that the participant’s safety would be protected to the maximum extent.

Just like the Merck vaccine, NIH vaccine was also developed to stir up an immune response that would keep any infection in check.

The results of the Merck trial last fall showed that it had failed on all counts- neither did it protect against infection nor were the people who were vaccinated and infected anyway, having any better control over HIVdefine than those who had given a placebo.

NIH vaccine which relied on bits of viral DNA to stir up an immune response was expected to succeed as it had showed positive results in animal trials. But Fauci insisted he wanted to carry out a study that would answer one basic question- whether the vaccine works? More particularly, the study would aim at finding out soon as to whether people who are vaccinated and subsequently become infected can control the level of virus in their bloodstream better than those who become infected but had been given a placebo.

Dr. Susan Buchbinder, director of HIV research for the San Francisco Department of Public Health and a leader of vaccine trials in the city, said Fauci's decision was a "balanced approach" as it is a more cautioned approach after what happened in the Merck trial.