HIV vaccine ready for human testing

[gsdx]

This is serious news:

HIV vaccine makers ready for human testing

An experimental HIV vaccine developed by an Ontario researcher may soon be approved for human testing in the United States.

02/07/2009 7:39:18 AM

CTV.ca News Staff

The vaccine was developed by University of Western Ontario professor Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, who is being supported by Sumagen Canada Inc.

The makers of the vaccine -- dubbed SAV001-H -- have sought an application from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin human testing.

According to Sumagen Canada, the vaccine has already been tested on animals, without any identified adverse effects or safety risks.

It has already been patented in more than 70 countries around the world.

If approved, the human testing for the vaccine will have two phases: The first will test its safety, the second will test how much of an immune response that the vaccine stimulates.

Full report: http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/ab...ewsitemid=CTVNews/20090701/hiv_vaccine_090701

 

[braex27]

Serious news indeed.

 

[gsdx]

Interesting that hardly anyone seems interested in this.

 

[Lukeee]

How long will all the testing take? How expensive will it be? The article doesn't say a whole lot

 

[gerrit]

My questions is: How can they test it on animals? Animals cannot get HIV.
H in HIV stands for Human.
Not trying to pessimistic about it.. Hell, I'd be the last one to be that. I am just thinking out loud.

 

[JasunStrikesBack]

Interesting that hardly anyone seems interested in this.

This is about the 20th time someone's run into the room waving that "VACCINE FLAG WE'RE ALL SAVED" only to find out that half the people it was tested on became HIV+ in about 2 months and that the vaccine actually made you MORE likely to be infected and not less.

nice they're still trying, I guess, but I'll get excited when it works.

 

[braex27]

My questions is: How can they test it on animals? Animals cannot get HIV.
H in HIV stands for Human.
Not trying to pessimistic about it.. Hell, I'd be the last one to be that. I am just thinking out loud.

HIV is a human virus, but as I understand, it originated in primates in Africa. The idea of testing the virus on animals is to see whether the animals' immune systems react to the injected agent - whether they respond at all.

The greater concern, I would think, for any human test subject would be (if the agent injected is meant to be latent version of the live virus), what controls are there to protect the test subject if their immune system does not respond?

 

[winterknight]

HIV is like 'flu. It mutates so fast that no single vaccine is likely to be effective for long.

I'll believe it when I see it.