HEALTH & SCIENCE

AIDS vaccine trial called disappointing, but not futile

Although the study found no efficacy in the general population, experts say it was a valuable exercise and will aid future AIDS research.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. March 17, 2003.

The news that the first AIDS vaccine to enter phase III clinical trials failed to provide protection against the virus in the general population left those involved desperately hunting for a silver lining.

According to trial results, which were released in February, the reduction in infection among the more than 5,000 study participants was barely 4%, hardly the mark of an effective vaccine and not a statistically significant finding.

In the wake of this news, the landscape appeared bleak. Physicians involved in the trial had to face their patients' dismay as well as their own. Frustrated researchers vowed to continue the search. And stock of VaxGen Inc., the company sponsoring the trial, took a nosedive.

"We wanted it to work," said Jerry Cade, MD, who ran the trial at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, where he is director of the HIV program. "It was very disappointing."

But many maintain that the trial was far from a futile exercise. It's hardly unusual for a drug or biologic to fail at some point, although with so much riding on the success or failure of this one, it attracted more attention than most. Most importantly, because this was the first phase III trial of an AIDS vaccine, what was learned is particularly crucial for the future of research in this area.

At the most basic level, researchers learned how to design an AIDS vaccine trial and retain more than 90% of enrolled participants -- a significantly higher retention rate than most clinical trials.

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