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Despite snags and skepticism, Thai vaccine trial lumbers on

Nature Medicine volume 10, page 1267 (2004)Cite this article

The Thai health ministry and the US Army launched the trial in October 2003 amid strong criticism from leading HIV researchers, who described the scientific rationale for the $119 million project as “extremely weak” (Science 303, 316; 2004).

The vaccine is a combination of Aventis Pasteur's canary pox vector (ALVAC) and VaxGen's controversial AIDSVAX vaccine. ALVAC stimulates the production of cytotoxic T lymphocytes, the 'killer cells' that destroy HIV-infected cells, and the booster AIDSVAX is intended to stimulate the production of neutralizing antibodies that prevent new cell infection. The combination is primarily designed to protect against clade E of the virus, predominant in Thailand, but also contains a few genes from clade B, which circulates in the US and Europe.

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  1. New Delhi

    T. V. Padma

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  1. T. V. Padma
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Related links in Nature Research

Eager Thailand takes on questionable therapies

Mixed results win HIV vaccine a guarded response

Prospects for an AIDS vaccine

http://www.nature.com/nm/special_focus/hiv/

Related external links

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative -- AODS vaccines in clinical trials

FDA Advisory Committee Report on the Thai vaccine

AIDSVAX

Aventis Pasteur

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Padma, T. Despite snags and skepticism, Thai vaccine trial lumbers on. Nat Med 10, 1267 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1204-1267b

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