SAAVI news releases
18 May 2003

6^th World AIDS Vaccine Day - Progress in HIV Vaccine Research in South Africa

With increased funding from its primary funders; international manufacturing agreements with companies to produce locally developed vaccines for clinical trials; arrangements to protect the rights of trial volunteers; an established clinical trial site infrastructure; and, protocols under review for potential phase I trials, the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) is well placed with its national and international partners to celebrate progress in vaccine research and development in South Africa on the 6th World AIDS Vaccine Day.

World AIDS Vaccine Day is celebrated annually on 18 May. Six years ago on 18 May 1997 former US President Bill Clinton challenged scientists to make the development of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection “the 21st century’s first great triumph”. He called for a vaccine to be available within ten years – by 2007.

SAAVI was established by the South African Cabinet and Eskom in 1999 as a lead programme of the South African Medical Research Council. Its primary funding is from the South African government and southern African electricity supplier, Eskom. SAAVI is tasked with developing an affordable, effective and locally relevant preventative HIV vaccine for southern Africa. SAAVI awards multimillion Rand funding annually to South African research groups at leading institutions to develop and test candidate HIV vaccines. It also funds researchers investigating the ethical issues involved in testing HIV vaccines, and a community education project.

“SAAVI has developed into a sophisticated, national biotechnology consortium which operates at the cutting edge of international HIV vaccine development. The growth of the initiative has exceeded the expectations of stakeholders and participants, with SAAVI products now in manufacture; clinical trial sites ready to test products; community, ethical and human rights issues carefully considered; immunology testing facilities developed which rival the best in the world; and, researchers occupying many senior international leadership positions”, says SAAVI director, Dr Tim Tucker.

Highlights of the past year include

• An award from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund the production of DNA vaccines developed by the SAAVI/University of Cape Town research group and an agreement with Cobra Therapeutics in the UK to manufacture and supply clinical trial and potentially commercial supplies of these vaccines – the manufacture of these initial vaccines is nearing completion.
• Continuation of a grant from the US NIH HIV Vaccines Trial Network (HVTN) to prepare clinical trial sites.
• Expanded funding from the European Union for vaccine preparedness and community education initiatives.
• The accreditation of the SAAVI group at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases as the only laboratory outside the US that is mandated to perform HVTN-related clinical trial immunological studies and testing.
• The Department of Health doubled its funding of SAAVI from R5 to R10 million per annum.
• The Department of Science and Technology has continued to commit R10 million per annum to SAAVI.
• Eskom increased its funding to SAAVI from the original R7,5 million to R15 million per annum and agreed to fund the initiative for the next five years – making this the largest-ever corporate contribution to HIV vaccine research and development in the world.
• The testing protocols of the Life Office’s Association were adapted to make provision for trial participants who may require more sophisticated HIV testing when applying for insurance.
• Memoranda of Understanding were concluded with and formal endorsement was obtained from organisations such as the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Biovac Consortium, the National Association of Federated Chambers of Business and the South African Chamber of Business.
• SAAVI investigators are extensively involved in the African AIDS Vaccine Programme, which was launched in the Cape during 2002, and in the HVTN structures.

In her address at the SAAVI Annual Conference in September 2002, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang described the government’s commitment to SAAVI as long-term and substantial, because of the urgency “for additional meaningful preventative intervention strategies for this epidemic … SAAVI is a model for how to get these various groups to interact creatively within a national initiative,” she said.

Dr José Esparza, the Head of the WHO/UNAIDS HIV Vaccine Initiative stated, “Very few programs, anywhere in the world, can claim that kind of accomplishments.”

“We have a national and global disaster which is unparalleled in history. As a country with scientific, clinical and other capacities, and very high HIV incidence, we have an obligation to participate and we can be pleased with the progress so far. We must build on the ever-increasing information regarding the virus, our body’s immune responses to infection with HIV, as well as the clinical trial data to ensure that progress is as swift and efficient as possible. Huge progress has been made both nationally and internationally – the pipeline of potential candidate HIV vaccines has expanded dramatically and it’s likely that we will see multiple trials of different types of candidate vaccines in the near future,” says Tucker. “This is a very exciting time for our country as we make the final plans for the first of a series of HIV vaccine clinical trials, using candidate vaccines developed both within SA and abroad.”

Additional background information
Each year in May the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) releases an in-depth report on the progress and pitfalls of HIV/AIDS vaccine development internationally. AVAC is a US community and consumer-based organisation, founded in December 1995 to accelerate the ethical development and global delivery of vaccines against HIV/AIDS. It aims to provide independent analysis, policy advocacy, public education and mobilisation to enhance AIDS vaccine research and development. The latest report is available at the AVAC website at www.avac.org.

For more information contact
Dr Tim Tucker, Director SAAVI, +27 (0) 21 938 0262, e-mail: saavi@mrc.ac.za;
Michelle Galloway, SAAVI Communications, +27 (0) 21 938 0205, 082 553 1149,
e-mail: michelle.galloway@mrc.ac.za;
www.saavi.org.za