Promising HIV vaccine may take 10 years to perfect

If a breakthrough in developing an HIV vaccine occurred today, scientists and drug companies would need another decade to provide a commercial product. But, after a long struggle, researchers may indeed have made that breakthrough using a new vaccine approach that combines two prior ones. Given that the AIDS pandemic has been around for 30 years and has claimed 36 million lives, with 35 million more people currently infected with the HIV virus, the long-awaited goal might finally be attainable, according to researchers attending the 13th Aids Vaccine Conference in Barcelona. This optimism is refreshing because the HIV vaccine track record has not been stellar. Of the five efficacy trials to date, four proved disappointing, with two of them even indicating an increased likelihood of contracting the virus among individuals who were vaccinated. It was only with RV144 (the so-called Thai trial) that a light appeared at the end of the...