Dual HIV vaccine trial won't be affected by end of Thai AIDSVAX study

Officials in Thailand last week announced that a clinical trial that combines two experimental HIV vaccines, Aventis Pasteur's ALVAC and VaxGen's AIDSVAX, will not be affected by a VaxGen decision to end a separate Thai trial of only the AIDSVAX vaccine, the Bangkok Post reports. VaxGen officials said last week that the company might pull funding from the AIDSVAX trial in Thailand before it is completed due to financial constraints and because of disappointing efficacy data from a North American trial of the vaccine. The dual vaccine trial involves 16,000 HIV-negative volunteers in Thailand and uses AIDSVAX as a booster for the ALVAC vaccine. The combination study is being run jointly by the Thai Ministry of Public Health and the Armed Forces Research Institute for Medical Sciences. The study is expected to last five years.