New vaccine research effort launched

Scientists and advocates for all vaccine research today launched a new effort to increase funding and coordination. The Foundation for Vaccine Research, based in Washington, D.C., has recruited a board stacked with several prominent HIV/AIDS researchers, including Ronald Desrosiers of the New England Primate Research Center, Simon Wain-Hobson of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, and Robin Weiss of University College London. Peter Hale, an advertising specialist who has long worked with HIV/AIDS researchers, started the foundation. “No one has been campaigning or lobbying for all vaccine research, and it’s desperately needed,” says Hale. “The science and technology are there, but the resources aren’t.” Hale plans to organize telethons to raise funding, which he says then will be awarded to grants that review committees will evaluate rapidly. “There are teams of scientists out there crying out for money, and we’ve only had two major sources of funds, the U.S. National Institutes of Health...