Health officials cancel HIV vaccine trial

BETHESDA, Md., July 18 (UPI) -- Health officials canceled a U.S. human trial of a human immunodeficiency virus vaccine, saying the size and scope of the proposed trial was too large.

"After soliciting and considering broad input from the scientific and HIV advocacy communities, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ... has determined that it will not conduct the HIV vaccine study known as PAVE 100," the National Institutes of Health division said Thursday in a news release.

"However, ... NIAID will entertain a proposal for an alternative study with one specific goal: to determine if the vaccine regimen significantly lowers viral load -- the amount of HIV in the blood of vaccinated individuals who may later become infected with HIV," the virus that causes AIDS, the agency said.

PAVE, the Partnership for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation, is a consortium of U.S. government agencies and government-funded organizations involved in developing and evaluating experimental HIV vaccines that might not be developed by pharmaceutical companies or institutions on their own.

The trial was supposed to have begun enrolling 8,500 volunteers last October to receive the vaccine, The New York Times reported. It was delayed after a test of a similar vaccine made by Merck failed in its two main goals: infection prevention and lowing the amount of HIV in the blood in volunteers who became infected.

Also, findings among the 3,000 participants in nine countries where the Merck vaccine was tested suggested it might have increased the risk of volunteers of becoming infected with HIV, the Times said.