Tests carried out into China's first AIDS vaccine suggest the drug could
prove effective at protecting people against the HIV virus, the Ministry of
Science and Technology announced on Friday.
Two volunteers (1st right, 2nd left) for AIDS
vaccine test talk to doctors at the Guangxi Center for Disease
Prevention and Control after being injected with AIDS vaccine in this June
11, 2006 photo. China announced on Friday that the vaccine is safe and
possibly effective. [Xinhua] |
Initial
clinical trials appear to show the vaccine can stimulate the immune system's
response to HIV infection.
Zhang Wei, head of the pharmaceutical registration department of the State
Food and Drug Administration, told a news briefing that "recipients of the
vaccine appeared immune to the HIV-1 virus 15 days after the injection,
indicating the vaccine worked well in stimulating immunity."
Kong Wei, the research team leader, said the initial results were "truly
inspiring."
The test involved injecting 49 healthy men and women, aged 18-50, with the
vaccine.
They also received HIV-1 specific cells that were DNA fragments of the virus
and so were harmless.
"Quite a few of them, after taking both low and high dosages, showed a fairly
positive response of immunity towards the virus," said Kong.
He added that the recipients' reaction improved as the dosage increased.
But Kong, a professor at Jilin University, declined to reveal more details,
saying it was too early to draw a hasty conclusion.
Sang Guowei, director of the National Institute for the Control of
Pharmaceutical and Biological Products, said "some of the recipients had
(adverse) symptoms, but they were curable or ignorable."
The results marked the end of the first phase of clinical trials into the
vaccine, which began in March last year in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The trial volunteers were divided into eight groups and were each sampled
five to 10 times. They showed no serious adverse reaction to the vaccine during
the 180-day observation period.
"We strictly followed international practices during the trial, including the
measurement of vaccine dosages," Kong said.
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