The Hindu : `Public sector should fund HIV vaccine research'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 01, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

`Public sector should fund HIV vaccine research'

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD March 31. World renowned immunological scientist, Sir Gustav Nossal, has said that public sector institutions and philanthropic organisations would have to take the lead in funding HIV vaccine research as the ethical and technical issues make it financially unattractive to private sector drug manufacturers.

He said that while work was on to find a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, he was "pessimistic in the short term, though optimistic in the long term'' that a successful vaccine would be developed.

He expressed greater confidence in the possibility of vaccines for certain cancers, especially of the cervix, breast, gastric tract and colon, coming into the market in near future. He said that a recent clinical trial of a cervical cancer vaccine in Taiwan had been successful and work was in full swing to develop it further.

The main roadblock to developing a fully marketable cancer vaccine was that most clinical trials had success with only 20 to 30 percent of the patients administered the vaccine due to the rapid mutation of the cancer cells. "They almost slip out of our reach, dodge our efforts to catch them,'' he explained.

He spoke about similar research in finding vaccines for malaria, TB and Hepatitis C, which he termed a "vicious virus''. But even here there is still some time before they are in any form for mass use, he cautioned.

He was in Hyderabad delivering the fourth CDFD Distinguished Lecture on "The Immunological Revolution: Practical Fruits and Future Promises'' on Monday. Sir Nossal, whose scientific accomplishments in fundamental immunology have been globally recognised, is Emeritus Professor in Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne. Currently he is associated with the Bill and Melinda Gates Children Vaccine Programme.

Responding to a question about people developing immunity in nature, Sir Nossal said that while this was true, he reminded the audience that a ''bitter price'' is paid by children in the form of infant mortality in societies which do not have universal immunisation. Interestingly, research also seems to indicate that very clean environments may have some correlation with developing allergies in children, specially asthma, he said. "So, it may not be a good idea to completely sanitise a child's environment,'' he said.

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