§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish the scientific advice they have been given about the relationship between investment in research and development of an AIDS vaccine and the time taken to get an effective low-cost vaccine to market. [HL793]
§ Baroness AmosAuthoritative reviews of scientific advances in the field of HIV and the development of an effective vaccine have recently been published by the Global HIV AIDS Vaccine Enterprise (1) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (2). The former is based upon discussions among 100 of the world's leading scientists working in the field of HIV. The latter—from an organisation which the UK has funded with grants totalling £18 million since 2000—summarises current progress in the co-ordination of scientific research and product development.
A joint World Health Organisation-United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (WHO-UNAIDS) meeting to be held on 2–3 February 2005, is reviewing scientific progress across HIV vaccine development research in the US, Europe, Africa and the Far East. DfID is fully engaged with these initiatives seeking to co-ordinate work on HIV vaccine development, and will continue to encourage dissemination of their findings.
The nature of scientific advance is not readily predictable in terms of timescale, particularly with such a complex challenge as posed by the HIV virus. However, recent advances in the field (an increased number of available candidate vaccines, improvements in animal models, a growing database from clinical trials, the availability of new laboratory tools etc.) give cause for cautious confidence that wise investment will result in acceleration of progress.