§ Mr. Nigel JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of field trials of vaccines to prevent HIV/AIDS carried out in(a) Kenya, (b) Uganda, (c) South Africa and (d) Botswana. [157487]
Mr. Gareth ThomasI have been asked to reply.
Four different vaccines are currently in Phase 1 safety trials in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Botswana. Three of these are based on types of HIV prevalent in East and Southern Africa and one, in Botswana, on the type of HIV prevalent in Europe and the USA. Details of the trials, the vaccines under investigation and trials sponsors can be found on the clinical trials database maintained by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) at www.iavi.org/trials.
DFID supports the global effort to accelerate the development of safe and effective HIV vaccines as an important part of a comprehensive long-term response to HIV and AIDS. Trials currently underway in Africa provide an important contribution to these efforts, particularly in developing vaccines that will be appropriate for use by developing countries. The participation of African researchers in these efforts is particularly welcome. Given the difficult task of discovering and proving the efficacy of an HIV vaccine, it is important that a number of promising vaccine candidates are developed in parallel if chances of success are to be increased and efforts accelerated. As the current trials are completed DFID expects that decisions will be made regarding which of the candidates should progress to later stage trials to test vaccine efficacy. These decisions will be the responsibility of the sponsoring agencies.
Since 1998 DFID has provided funding to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) to progress global HIV vaccine efforts, with a particular focus on vaccines developed for use by developing countries. IAVI is a not-for-profit organisation with the mission to accelerate the development of safe and effective HIV vaccines and to ensure the rapid availability for use throughout the world. IAVI actively manages a research portfolio with its R&D partners, which includes support for eight vaccine candidates, three of which are currently in trials in the countries in question.