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"China hails AIDS vaccine promise"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(20/08/06)
BEIJING: Tests carried out on China’s first AIDS vaccine suggest the drug
could prove effective at protecting people against the HIV virus, the
Ministry of Science and Technology announced on Friday.
Initial clinical trials appeared to show the vaccine could stimulate the
immune system’s response to HIV infection.
Zhang Wei, head of the pharmaceutical registration department of the State
Food and Drug Administration, told a news briefing that “recipients of the
vaccine appeared immune to the HIV-1 virus 15 days after the injection,
indicating the vaccine worked well in stimulating immunity.”
Kong Wei, the research team leader, said the initial results were “truly
inspiring.”
The test involved injecting 49 healthy men and women, aged between 18 and
50, with the vaccine.
They also received HIV-1 specific cells that were DNA fragments of the virus
and so were harmless.
“Quite a few of them, after taking both low and high dosages, showed a
fairly positive response of immunity towards the virus,” said Kong.
He added that the recipients’ reaction improved as the dosage increased.
But Kong, a professor at Jilin University, declined to reveal more details,
saying it was too early to draw a conclusion.
Sang Guowei, director of the National Institute for the Control of
Pharmaceutical and Biological Products, said “some of the recipients had
(adverse) symptoms, but they were curable or ignorable.”
The results marked the end of the first phase of clinical trials into the
vaccine, which began in March last year.
The scientists will now continue analysing the results before further
clinical trials.
The ministry said the second trial phase would need more than 300
volunteers, including those from high-risk groups.
In the third phase, an even larger number of participants will be needed.
China started research into an AIDS vaccine in 2003 and has more than 50
researchers involved in the work.
The country has about 650,000 people living with HIV, including 75,000 AIDS
patients, according to official estimates.
From 2001 to last year, more than 100 million yuan (RM46mil) was invested in
AIDS-related research, according to Wang Hongguang, director of the China
National Centre for Biotechnology Development.
Vice-Minister of Science and Technology, Liu Yanhua, said China has made
several AIDS-related studies breakthroughs.
Great progress has also been made in research into preventing pregnant
mothers from transmitting the HIV virus to unborn children. — China Daily /
Asia News Network
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