Scientific Consensus on AIDS Vaccine Prospect is Bleak, Poll Reveals

"Substantial Minority" of Scientists' Polled Believe AIDS Vaccine
May Never Be Developed
LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--
Scientific consensus on the prospect for development of an
effective preventive AIDS vaccine is bleak, according to the results
of a poll of AIDS researchers and scientists which was released
earlier today. The poll of AIDS scientists offered significant
additional credibility to the recent public call by AIDS Healthcare
Foundation (AHF) to halt U.S. government funding of repeatedly failing
AIDS vaccine research -- which for more than 20 years has shown few
results other than how not to develop a vaccine.

In a poll of more than 35 top HIV/AIDS scientists in Great Britain
and the U.S. conducted by Britain's The Independent newspaper, "nearly
two-thirds believed that an HIV vaccine will not be developed within
the next ten years..." and "a substantial minority of the scientists
admitted that an HIV vaccine may never be developed..."

AHF's call to halt taxpayer funding of AIDS vaccine research first
came late last month in an opinion article in the Baltimore Sun
published Sunday, March 23, two days before an HIV Vaccine Summit
convened by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), met to discuss HIV vaccine
funding strategy in the wake of a string of recent, highly publicized
clinical trial failures, including Merck's latest AIDS vaccine
candidate, which was abruptly pulled from human clinical trials when
it not only failed as a vaccine, but it was found to endanger lives by
increasing the likelihood that study participants would contract the
virus.

"The results of this poll clearly show scientific consensus on
AIDS vaccine development is gloomy at best, and confirms our belief
that it is time for an honest re-assessment of all U.S. government
funding of AIDS vaccine research," said Michael Weinstein, President
of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "I think this poll also underscores an
inherent conflict of interest between AIDS vaccine researchers and the
public interest -- the lack of real scientific validity or promise in
continuing such vaccine research, versus the pursuit of generous
government research funding that many AIDS scientists and researchers
benefit from. Privately to the pollsters, many are bleak in their
assessment of vaccine development, yet publicly they continue to
proclaim the likelihood of vaccine success and the importance of
continuing to pursue -- and fund -- the search."

"According to The Independent, among those AIDS researchers and
scientists who believe that an AIDS vaccine could appear within the
next ten years, many added the caveat that such a vaccine might be
unlikely to work as a 'truly effective prophylactic against infection
by the virus,' something that would open up entirely new moral and
ethical concerns about using such a so-called vaccine," said Homayoon
Khanlou, M.D., AHF's Chief of Medicine/U.S. "What would be an
acceptable margin of vaccine efficacy? And who would determine or
decide that question? We believe that it is time for an unbiased third
party, such as the Government Accountability Office, to step in and
review the full history and funding of AIDS vaccine research."

In "Enough is Enough," the opinion editorial published in the
Baltimore Sun March 23rd, co-authors Homayoon Khanlou, M.D., AHF's
Chief of Medicine/U.S., and Michael Weinstein, AHF's President,
criticized the ballooning HIV vaccine research budget, stating that
"it is time to stop the waste."

"Suspending U.S. funding for an HIV vaccine and investing in
strategies that save lives and stop new infections is the wisest and
most effective use of limited public resources," conclude Dr. Khanlou
and Mr. Weinstein. "And with thousands of lives lost daily because
people around the world lack access to proven, effective and
relatively inexpensive prevention and treatment options, it is also
the only moral choice."

Resources are not limitless. It is time for an honest
re-assessment -- perhaps through a Government Accountability Office
review -- and a redeployment of resources to deliver lifesaving
antiretroviral AIDS treatments to those in need today.

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the U.S.' largest non-profit
HIV/AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or
services to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide in
the U.S., Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional
information is available at www.aidshealth.org

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Ged Kenslea, Communications Director
+1.323.860.5225 work
+1.323.791.5526 mobile
gedk@aidshealth.org
or
Lori Yeghiayan, Associate Director, Communications
+1.323.860.5227 work
+1.323.377.4312 mobile
lori.yeghiayan@aidshealth.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008