HIV breakthrough as FDA gives permission for trials

A CANADIAN team is celebrating what could be a crucial breakthrough in the search for an injection to prevent people contracting the HIV virus. They have been granted permission by the US drug-licensing authority - the FDA - to start clinical tests on real patients in the States with a one-of-a-kind vaccine.
 
Several vaccines are in development around the world, but the University of Western Ontario team are the first to use a 'dead' version of the actual virus in theirs, in line with the principal behind pioneering vaccines such as those against polio and influenza.
 
The Montreal Gazette reports that phase one of the trials will involve testing the vaccine, which has been in development for years, on 40 HIV-positive patients in California. As they already have the virus, there is no extra risk posed to them if they contract it again from the vaccine – though researchers are confident this will not happen, seeing the first phase as a formality.
 
Phase one will take 18 months, after which there will be a further two phases of testing the vaccine on a group of 6,600 individuals who do not have the virus but stand a high risk of contracting it – e.g. haemophiliacs, sex workers and intravenous drug users.
 
Only after all three phases are complete will it be possible to see if the vaccine is 100 per cent effective on humans. If it is, it could be rolled out for use in the real world within five years.
 
Dr Chil-Yong Kan from University of Western Ontario told the Gazette: "FDA approval for human clinical trials is an extremely significant milestone for our vaccine, which has the potential to save the lives of millions of people around the world by preventing HIV infection."
 
Around the world, some 34m people live with the HIV virus, according to the UN's Aids programme. ·