“The Blue Sheet”

APR 10 '97 11:02AM AAAS SCIENCE MAGAZINE
5 - 2 -"The Blue Sheet"

P. 1/2 April 9, 1957

THREE OUT OF FOUR BIOTECH AIDS VACCINE RESEARCH
PROGRAMS HAVE FOLDED IN FIVE YEARS. VRls LU SAYS
AIDS vaccine research currently is being conducted
by approximately 75% fewer private biotech companies
in the U.S. and Europe than five years ago, Yichen Lu,
Virus Research Institute, maintained April 7 at a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
in Washington, D.C.
Lu asserted that "four or five years ago, there were
about 40 biotechnology companies in this country [and]
Europe working on an HIV vaccine." Now, he said,
there are "less than 10."
"We are disappearing," Lu declared. "More distur,
bing, there are no newcomers in this industry. This
whole industry that is very innovative, that takes a
leading role in this country in drug discovery...[is]
dispirited, [is] not participating."
To reverse the trend, Lu suggested that the federal
government should consider direct subsidies to private
companies to fund AIDS vaccine development.
"The government needs to come in to rescue tis
effort," Lu told the council. "The pipeline of the HIV
vaccine right now...is dangerously empty. If we decided
to go ahead to test [the vaccine] to get human data,
what [candidates] do we have to do it? We still face the
same choices (we] had three years ago, because there's
no pipeline there."
Reasons for the decline of biotech participation in
vaccine research include the fact that "all of the
big...pharmaceutical companies are not making any new
deals with biotech companies," Lu said.
Also, he explained that "the private investors are
scared off" because after 15 years of vaccine development, there is still no vaccine. He noted that, on average,
vaccines take 10 years to develop at a cost of $100 mil.
"Some companies have spent $70 mil. to get a
vaccie, [and] have not even got into Phase Ill" testing,
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Lu noted. "Isn't that enough to scare investors? If you
had money, would you buy the stock of the company
that was doing this type of business?"
"That's why the. government has to help," he
maintained. "If this was...some other disease, we could
wait. But in this case, we cannot wait."
NIH has committed $148 mil. to research on AIDS
vaccines as part of President Clinton's FY 1998 budget
request. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, meanwhile, has set aside $6 nil. to fund
AIDS vaccine research involving "a high degree of
innovation, risk and novelty" ("The Blue Sheet" March
12, p. 10).
The council met to hear presentations from
government, industry and AIDS advocates regarding the
state of AIDS vaccine development, and to receive
comments on draft recommendations on AIDS vaccine
research that are being developed by the council's
research subcommittee.
One of the group's recommendations proposed that
a target date be set for the development of an effective
vaccine against hIIV/AIDS. "The President must declare
an urgent goal of developing a vaccine to prevent
HIV/AIDS within the next decade in order to mobilize
public opinion, political will, international collaboration,
and to assign high priority to this effort within each of
the governmental agencies involved in HIV/AIDS vaccine research and development," the draft recommendation states.
Target Date For AIDS Vaccine Deelope ant Questioned
Reaction to the concept of'announcing a target date
was mixed. Jerald Sadoff, Merck Vaccines, stated: "I
think it's almost impossible to predict what that would
be, since we don't know whether we need to or how to
induce cross-reacting the antibody. But seven to ten
years is not out of the ballpark."
Philip Russell, Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Foundation,
emphasized the need for White House involvement. "I
fully endorse the concept of the President setting a
national goal to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS," he
said, noting that he is "wary of setting target dates for
vaccine development, but presidential commitment to
such a statement will have very important impact. And a
target date does provide a focus and a incentive."
NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said: "I believe it's
folly to give a date." However, he said that "the President and the Administration should make it very clear

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