§ The Earl of Sandwichasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made in 1999, with their funding or technical assistance, towards the development of a more affordable vaccine against AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa; and what expectations they have of a breakthrough in the coming year. [HL4298]
§ Baroness AmosThis year we have increased our support to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) from £200,000 to £14 million over five years. This will support the development of an AIDS vaccine which is safe, effective and affordable for the developing world. IAVI are harnessing public and private resources to accelerate testing of a number of promising candidate AIDS vaccines suitable to market to developing countries within 10–15 years. This is a long-term product development effort which supplements basic DFID sponsored vaccine research undertaken by the Medical Research Council and the European Commission.