European HIV vaccine candidate to begin safety trials

A Phase I clinical trial of an experimental HIV vaccine developed in Europe will begin in Switzerland and London this month, Agence France-Presse reports. The vaccine was developed by EuroVacc 01, a consortium of scientists and physicians across Europe, as well as the pharmaceutical company Aventis. The vaccine, which uses bits of genetic material from HIV to induce an immune system response to invading HIV, will undergo safety tests in HIV-negative male and female volunteers at the University of Lausanne's Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois in Switzerland and St. Mary's Hospital in London. Additional human tests will follow to gauge the efficacy of the vaccine. The clinical trial will be the first human study of a EuroVacc vaccine candidate.