Canadian HIV vaccine ready for human tests

[Brandon716]

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/07/01/health-canadian-aids-hiv-vaccine-kang.html

Canadian HIV vaccine ready for human tests
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 8:47 AM ET

An HIV/AIDS vaccine developed in Canada has passed safety tests in animals and the researchers are awaiting approval to begin human trials in the U.S.

"It is a very important milestone for us," said Yong Kang, a professor of microbiology at the University of Western Ontario in London who has been working on the vaccine for 20 years.

Kang said he expects to get the go-ahead soon from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin human toxicology tests and two phases of clinical trials in the United States.

If all three trials are successful, the vaccine should be available within the next decade, Kang told CBC News on the phone while attending a meeting in South Korea.

According to a 2008 United Nations report on the global AIDS epidemic, 33 million people were living with HIV in 2007. Two million people died of causes related to the disease that year.

Dozens of HIV vaccines have already been developed and tested in animal models, but few have been tested in humans, none successfully. A promising trial in 2007 by pharmaceutical giant Merck and Co. was shut down after those receiving the vaccine contracted HIV at a higher rate than those who received the placebo.

Kang has partnered with a Curacom, a South Korean holding company, that has agreed to open an office in London, Ont., to help fund research in Kang's lab and commercialize the vaccine.

A test vaccine is being manufactured in a lab in Maryland near Washington, D.C.

Lab tests showed the vaccine produced no adverse effects or safety risks during immunology tests on animals.

The toxicology tests are expected to include 40 to 50 HIV-positive volunteers in the U.S., and will be designed to test whether the vaccine is toxic in humans.

 

[Brandon716]

Here's another article I found:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090701/hiv_vaccine_090701/20090701?hub=Health

Sumagen Canada, which is a subsidiary of a Korean drug research company, says it is prepared to start a clinical trial for the vaccine as soon as the FDA gives its approval.

To date, no cure has been found for HIV/AIDS despite years of research. The most recent clinical trials for other vaccines have been unsuccessful.

In December, Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier predicted that is "a matter of four to five years" before an HIV vaccine is developed.

Montagnier was one of two scientists to discover the HIV virus in 1983.

He was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine last October.

It is kind of confusing for me as I don't have enough information, but it sounds like he's using a Korean based company to manufacture the vaccine for trials, and they prefer to do it in Maryland - for whatever reasons - but the technology was developed at University of Western Ontario by Dr. Kang's team. So I suppose when he submitted the order to manufacture the trial to Sumagen Canada, they then decided to use their facilities in the US for testing. Its out of the researcher's hands at that point from the sound of it.


EDIT: Here is a UWO official news release.
http://communications.uwo.ca/com/we...roval_sought_for_aids_vaccine_20090630444536/

The Phase l clinical trials, if approved, will double check the safety of the vaccine using HIV positive volunteers. The second stage - Phase ll trials - would then assess the immunogenicity of the vaccine.

Sumagen says it is prepared to begin the clinical trial in the U.S. as soon as approval is granted.

London and Western are also on a short list of Canadian cities being considered by the federal government for the building of an $88-million HIV vaccine manufacturing facility. Part of the funding for the facility will come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Apparently London is being considered for a post-trial vaccine manufacture center if this works.

London, Ontario will become the world center of a HIV vaccine if it pans out.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

i hope they not only come out with a vaccine, i hope they will be able to cure those who are already infected with HIV and those who have AIDS. my sympathy goes out to those who are affected. nobody deserves to have this condition, regardless of what some really stupid people say.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Vaccine treatments are encouraging but who would want to sign up for this kind of a trial? Not me. And those poor souls who end up getting the placebo....