HIV vaccine on trial in Uganda
Feb 22, 2006
THE Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), on February 6, announced a Phase II trial of a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine code-named tgAAC09. The trial seeks to test the safety of the vaccine candidate and how it triggers the body’s response.
By Timothy Makokha
THE Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), on February 6, announced a Phase II trial of a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine code-named tgAAC09. The trial seeks to test the safety of the vaccine candidate and how it triggers the body’s response.
The Phase II trial follows positive safety data received from the Phase I trial conducted over the past two years in Belgium, Germany, and India. The trial will be conducted at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe under Dr. Pontiano Kaleebu as Principal Investigator. Parallel trials are currently underway at three sites in South Africa. This is the second IAVI-sponsored HIV vaccine trial to be conducted in Uganda.
“We are pleased that Uganda continues to play a leading role in the testing of promising HIV vaccine candidates,†said Kaleebu. “A vaccine is the world’s best hope to end the spread of a disease that infects 14,000 men, women and children worldwide every day.â€
Developed by Targeted Genetics Corporation, a biotechnology company based in the US, tgAAC09 is a preventive vaccine, intended to protect uninfected people from contracting HIV.
The trial vaccine is designed to elicit two different types of immune responses, an antibody response and a cell-mediated response. The Uganda study is expected to last about 18 months.
Simon Sigirenda, the Community Programmes Assistant said the study will enroll 78 volunteers at five sites. “Its primary aim is to test for safety and to gather information on the ability of the candidate vaccine to stimulate the human immune system to fight HIV/AIDS,†Sigirenda says. The trial will also seek to establish whether the vaccine is appropriate for use in this region.
Twenty volunteers from those
who attended IAVI-coordinated seminars will take part in the clinical trial. Sigirenda says the participants should be healthy, HIV negative and able and willing to give informed consent.
The participants, who must be between the ages of 18 and 50, will be drawn from mainly Kampala and Entebbe. They will also be required to be available for the study for the period of the trial.
Uganda was home to the first-ever HIV vaccine trial in Africa in 1999, which was conducted at the Joint Clinical Research Centre. Since that time, Uganda has become an important contributor to HIV vaccine research and development in partnership with IAVI and also with the collaboration of Makerere University and Walter Reed Project and Makerere University and John Hopkins University.
Ends
THE Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), on February 6, announced a Phase II trial of a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine code-named tgAAC09. The trial seeks to test the safety of the vaccine candidate and how it triggers the body’s response.
The Phase II trial follows positive safety data received from the Phase I trial conducted over the past two years in Belgium, Germany, and India. The trial will be conducted at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe under Dr. Pontiano Kaleebu as Principal Investigator. Parallel trials are currently underway at three sites in South Africa. This is the second IAVI-sponsored HIV vaccine trial to be conducted in Uganda.
“We are pleased that Uganda continues to play a leading role in the testing of promising HIV vaccine candidates,†said Kaleebu. “A vaccine is the world’s best hope to end the spread of a disease that infects 14,000 men, women and children worldwide every day.â€
Developed by Targeted Genetics Corporation, a biotechnology company based in the US, tgAAC09 is a preventive vaccine, intended to protect uninfected people from contracting HIV.
The trial vaccine is designed to elicit two different types of immune responses, an antibody response and a cell-mediated response. The Uganda study is expected to last about 18 months.
Simon Sigirenda, the Community Programmes Assistant said the study will enroll 78 volunteers at five sites. “Its primary aim is to test for safety and to gather information on the ability of the candidate vaccine to stimulate the human immune system to fight HIV/AIDS,†Sigirenda says. The trial will also seek to establish whether the vaccine is appropriate for use in this region.
Twenty volunteers from those
who attended IAVI-coordinated seminars will take part in the clinical trial. Sigirenda says the participants should be healthy, HIV negative and able and willing to give informed consent.
The participants, who must be between the ages of 18 and 50, will be drawn from mainly Kampala and Entebbe. They will also be required to be available for the study for the period of the trial.
Uganda was home to the first-ever HIV vaccine trial in Africa in 1999, which was conducted at the Joint Clinical Research Centre. Since that time, Uganda has become an important contributor to HIV vaccine research and development in partnership with IAVI and also with the collaboration of Makerere University and Walter Reed Project and Makerere University and John Hopkins University.
Ends