China’s Second Attempt at creating an HIV/AIDS vaccine
China has been interested in creating an AIDS vaccine for 16 years. The country didn’t own intellectual property rights to the vaccine until 2006. This is the second vaccine that the country has entered into phase one testing. The first phase of testing focuses on safety.
It has been given to 36 volunteers. I can’t imagine how it must feel to be one of those volunteers. In one hand, your helping solve a global problem. But the consequences of testing a new drug can be serve. All I have to say is, my hats off to those 36. Tests on mice and small animals have shown that the drug is safe for humans.
This vaccine is different then any other vaccine that has ever been tested. It replicates itself to fight HIV infection. To this date there have been around 120 tests of HIV vaccines on humans.
The vaccine seems promising. However, if it were found to work, years of work still lies ahead. It’s not time to declare victory, this test is just one of many that will add to our knowledge of the disease.
China’s first vaccine passed phase one. Meaning the vaccine was found to be safe for human use. This vaccine is still waiting to be moved into phase two. Officials have said, that we would have to wait for future announcements before we know the fate of this first vaccine. Most likely it will eventually be moved to phase two. This will test the vaccine’s ability to fight an HIV infection. The third phase will test the HIV vaccine’s ability to protect high risk groups.
China has around 700,000 people infected with Aids or HIV. China is being some-what closed-mouthed about both vaccines. But, I guess you can’t expect them to tell us everything.
It will be at least a few months before we know the results of the test currently be conducted in China. I guess we will just have to wait…
Tags: AIDS, China, HIV, vaccine