i dont think so...
From Yahoo! news
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/aids_vaccine_fails;_ylt=AiV20i6B05wBvfTCHd5wDxWgyygB
By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer Sat Sep 22, 3:23 AM
ET
TRENTON, N.J. - In a disappointing setback, a promising
experimental AIDS vaccine failed to work in a large international
test, leading the developer to halt the study. Merck & Co. said
Friday that it is ending enrollment and vaccination of volunteers
in the study, which was partly funded by the National Institutes of
Health.
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It was a high-profile failure in the daunting quest to develop a
vaccine to prevent AIDS. Merck's vaccine was the farthest along and
was closely watched by experts in the field.
Officials at the company, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., said
24 of 741 volunteers who got the vaccine in one segment of the
experiment later became infected with HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS. In a comparison group of volunteers who got dummy shots, 21
of 762 participants also became infected.
"It's very disappointing news," said Keith Gottesdiener, head of
Merck's clinical infectious disease and vaccine research group. "A
major effort to develop a vaccine for HIV really did not deliver on
the promise."
Michael Zwick, an HIV researcher at Scripps Research Institute,
said the vaccine's failure is unfortunate. But he said it's too
soon to know if other vaccines using the same strategy would also
fail.
"It's par for the course in the HIV field," he said of the Merck
result.
The volunteers in the experiment were all free of HIV at the start.
But they were at high risk for getting the virus: Most were
homosexual men or female sex workers. They were all repeatedly
counseled about how to reduce their risk of HIV infections,
including use of condoms, according to Merck.
In a statement, the NIH said a data safety monitoring board,
reviewing interim results, found the vaccine did not prevent HIV
infection. Nor did it limit severity of the disease "in those who
become infected with HIV as a result of their own behaviors that
exposed them to the virus" another goal of the study.
Merck's was the first major test of a new strategy to prevent HIV
infection. The first wave of attempts to develop a vaccine tried to
stimulate antibodies against the virus, but that hasn't worked so
far.
The new effort an approach that Gottesdiener said is being tried
in most other current research is aimed at making the body
produce more of a crucial immune cell called killer T cells. The
goal is to simultaneously "train" those cells, like an army, to
quickly recognize and destroy the AIDS virus when it enters cells
in the bloodstream.
Zwick said some researchers still are working on vaccines to
neutralize the AIDS virus. He thinks ultimately what's needed is
one that combines that approach with a way to stimulate and train
killer T cells.
Merck and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, an international
collaboration of researchers and institutions funded by the NIH,
co-sponsored the study. The experiment, called STEP, began in
December 2004 and had enrolled 3,000 volunteers in Australia,
Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru,
Puerto Rico and the United States.
The results announced Friday involved volunteers who researchers
thought would benefit most because they had never been exposed to
the particular cold virus used in the vaccine.
Wall Street, on a generally upbeat day, showed little reaction to
the news, with Merck shares rising 44 cents to $51.82.
Analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities said the vaccine was
considered the most promising candidate both by Wall Street and the
science community. He said a vaccine is the only financially
feasible way to fight the AIDS epidemic in poor countries and that
the company that comes up with the first successful shot would have
"a license to print money."
"You're talking about a Carl Sagan kind of number billions and
billions" of dollars, he said.
The Merck vaccine, known only as V520, also was being tested in a
similar study in South Africa and in two smaller studies, which
also were halted.
The Merck vaccine failure is a "deep disappointment and a
scientific setback for the AIDS vaccine field," the AIDS Vaccine
Advocacy Coalition said in a statement. However, the nonprofit
group added that "while this is a disappointment, it is in no way
the end of the search for an AIDS vaccine."
___
On the Net: http://www.merck.com
