Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Agouron Pharmaceuticals (AGPH) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Izzy who wrote (3221)	12/8/1997 9:10:00 PM
From: Oliver & Co	Respond to of 6136

"Proposed Live HIV Vaccine Trials Face Safety, Production Hurdles" IAVI Report (10/97-12/97) Vol. 2, No. 3, P. 1; Gold, David ÿÿÿÿ Sparking a wave of activity on research into, and debate regarding, live-attenuated HIV vaccines, the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC) announced in September that more than 50 people had volunteered for a study of a live-attenuated HIV vaccine.ÿ The study was based on data from Ronald Desrosiers of the Harvard Medical School and others that live-attenuated SIV vaccines offered impressive protection in monkeys. Yet a subsequent report by Ruth Ruprecht of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which found that the delta-3 vaccine--the type used in the aforementioned research--could cause AIDS in newborn monkeys raised concerns that human studies of such vaccines should not begin until more research is conducted.ÿ Still, in early November, IAPAC presented its proposal for a live attenuated HIV vaccine trial, which would use a vaccine designed by Desrosiers--HIV with at least the nef, vpr, vpu, and nuclear factor B (delta-4) genes deleted--that would initially be applied to only five participants.ÿ Another trial proposed by the University of Massachusetts' John Sullivan, however, would focus on delta-4 construct in terminal cancer patients.ÿ Sullivan believes that cancer patients can provide key data in terms of early immune responses and viral replication, particularly because they have competent immune systems and normal CD4 cell counts.ÿ Meanwhile, in Australia, researchers at Macfarlane Burnet Centre are already making inroads toward a human study of a live HIV vaccine that mimics a weakened HIV strain found in a cohort of long-term non-progressors.ÿ Production of a live attenuated vaccine may be many more years away, however, and safety concerns could delay progress even further.