PhRMA released a new report – Biopharmaceutical Researchers Testing 100 Medicines and Vaccines for HIV Infection and Related Conditions. The overview notes that:
“…treatment alone is not enough to combat HIV/AIDS. For every two patients who begin receiving HIV treatment, five people become infected. A preventative vaccine is crucial to the fight against AIDS. “A safe and effective HIV vaccine is critical to the control of HIV globally,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). According to the International AIDS Vaccine
Initiative (IAVI), without a significant improvement in prevention efforts, including an HIV vaccine, infections could double from about 5 million a year in 2005 to 10 million a year by 2030. IAVI estimates that the potential positive impact of AIDS vaccines would be enormous, especially in the developing world.
Conservatively, a vaccine that is 50 percent effective and given to only 30 percent of the population could reduce new HIV infections by 34 percent over 15 years, according
to IAVI. Currently, 33 vaccines are in development. In addition to the vaccines, there are 56 antivirals, two cancer treatments, four immunomodulators, three gene therapies, and two other medicines now in human clinical trials or before the Food and Drug Administration awaiting approval.
vaccines and global health :: ethics and policy 