Three Russian HIV Vaccines Proceed To Clinical Trial

Scientific research at three major Russian research centers in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Moscow have HIV vaccines in development which are ready to enter into clinical trial, the Russian News Agency Reports.

Alexei Mazus, head of the Moscow City Center for Preventing and Fighting AIDS, told attendees at a press conference that the three vaccines “were neither worse nor better than Western counterparts. They have only entered their trial stage, but they are ready as a product.”

According to CNN, results from a 2009 clinical trial in Thailand reinvigorated the global initiative to find a preventative vaccine for a pervasive and widespread disease. The Thai trials were the first to show any vaccine efficacy; a combination of two vaccines known as ALVAC-HIV and AIDSVAX led to a 31.2 percent reduction in risk of contracting HIV.

John Mascola, director of the Vaccine Research Center at U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN, “The field is energized.”

CNN reports that a vaccine for HIV is particularly problematic due to its rate of change within the human system, and the biggest obstacle that remains is that the virus is still so largely misunderstood.

Wayne Koff, CSO for the International AIDS Vaccine Alliance, told CNN, “In the case of HIV, the old empirical approach isn’t going to work.”

Additionally, adds Koff, scientists usually expect vaccines to demonstrate an 80 to 90 percent efficacy rate, but a lower rate may be acceptable for an HIV vaccine because of its value as a life-saving tool over time.

The WHO estimates that over 35 million people worldwide are living with HIV; the largest portion live in sub-Saharan Africa. While global healthcare workers are aggressively pursuing alternate preventative measures, a vaccine is still badly needed.

Now that scientists realize the vaccine is possible, a successful clinical candidate could literally emerge from anywhere. Even Russia.

Reporters at both BBC and Bloomberg have suggested in recent months that disenchantment with Vladamir Putin is causing Russia to lose a great deal of its existing scientific and medical talent to other countries, and time will tell what lasting effect this will have on Russia’s pharmaceutical industry.

Mazus told the Russian News Agency, “So far, vaccines have been created, and we have managed to keep young scientists in the country who have received money and worked for us, developing not only the vaccine but the science around the vaccine.”

Mazus went on to confirm that the three candidates merited a lot more research that he expected would take many years.

“This is a rather expensive effort,” he said.