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621-A North San
Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, California 90069
Phone: 310/358.2423
Fax: 310.358.2431 www.aidsresearch.org
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Contact: Irl S.
Barefield 310.360.3860
Stephen J. Brown,
M.D. 310.358.2423
AIDS ReSearch
Alliance Addresses HIV Vaccine Trial Result Announcement
West
Hollywood Research Facility has among highest number of research
volunteers in
North America, comments on today’s announcement by VaxGen
pivotal trial results for North American trial of AIDSVAX.
(Los Angeles, CA,
February 24, 2003) — AIDS ReSearch Alliance of America
(ARA) is extremely encouraged by the implications behind today’s
announcement regarding VaxGen’s AIDSVAX Phase III vaccine
trials. While the vaccine proved less effective than hoped,
encouraging news was found among African American and Asians/Pacific
Islanders. In those groups, the vaccine appears to have protected
a significant number of infections. "This is the first time
that a vaccine been shown to prevent HIV infections in humans."
said Irl S. Barefield, Executive Director of AIDS ReSearch
Alliance. "And this very encouraging news — a milestone
in HIV research, and very good news."
ARA, a West Hollywood
non-profit medical research organization, had the highest
enrollment of study participants in California and the third
highest in the United States. For the past 3 years, ARA studied
206 women and men, who were considered high-risk for sexual
contact of HIV and monitoring their results. Study volunteers
received 7 injections of either the actual vaccine or a placebo.
Although sample
sizes were small, in African-American study participants,
AIDSVAX was 78% successful in reducing infection rates, and
in Asian-Americans and other non-Latino minorities the vaccine
was 67% effective. "No one anticipated that the vaccine would
prevent infection in close to four out of five people in any
demographic group. AIDSVAX did this in black men and women
at high risk for HIV-infection, a group in which infections
have been rising," Barefield said.
Dr. Stephen J.
Brown, ARA’s Director of Clinical Research, stated that
"Results seen in the African American and Asian Pacific Islander
populations are intriguing. Understanding what led to greater
protection in these populations, for example, higher neutralizing
antibody production, will help us better understand how to
design more effective vaccines. Regardless of the results,
we have learned a great deal about how to conduct vaccine
studies, and this study clearly shows that it is possible
to recruit a large cohort and keep them involved in a vaccine
study," Brown asserted.
One of ARA’s
trial participants, Donald Hicks, Ph.D. "Whether the vaccine
ultimately gets FDA approval or not, we have made major advances
by doing this study. The fact is that the study retained more
people than was thought possible, and did so without seeing
increases in unsafe behavior."
As a community-based
research organization, AIDS ReSearch Alliance’s largest
success in recruiting vaccine study volunteers was found in
some of the communities hit hardest by this disease locally.
"The community was overwhelmingly supportive in our recruitment
efforts. Local publications gave us free ad space and wrote
articles about the study, while local bars allowed us to provide
outreach to their patrons. Our 206 study volunteers are the
most dedicated group of individuals I have ever met," said
Michelle Simek, ARA’s Outreach Coordinator. "Today’s
announcement clearly stresses the importance of increased
participation by communities of color in clinical trials."
"There is much
work to be done," said Barefield. "With 14,000 people becoming
infected worldwide every day, even a partially effective preventative
vaccine would allow us to save thousands of lives. We still
need to aggressively move forward with research and clinical
trials to find more effective interventions to both prevent
and treat HIV/AIDS."
About AIDS ReSearch
Alliance: AIDS ReSearch Alliance (ARA) is a non-profit
medical research institute based in West Hollywood, CA, with
a mission to find and accelerate the development of effective
treatments and prevention technologies for those living with
or at risk for HIV/AIDS. It does this through performing preclinical
research and clinical trials, often collaborating with scientists
from around the world.
AIDS ReSearch
Alliance (ARA) Volunteer Jeff Linden receives his first injection
of VaxGen’s AIDSVAX™ B/B in 1998 from ARA’s
Director of Clinical Research, Dr. Stephen J. Brown.
Photo
by Faye Sadou
A high-resolution
version of this photo is available by emailing
here.
Click
here to download a PDF version of this press release.
To connect to VacGen's
website and read more about the study, click
here.
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