Financial Times (www.ft.com)
(11/20/02) P. 5; Jenkins, Patrick
The South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI)
recently secured a low-cost deal with the British scientific firm Cobra
Biomanufacturing to supply the DNA that S.A. scientists need for the development
of a revolutionary HIV vaccine. Human trials of the vaccine are scheduled for
2004. According to SAAVI director Tim Tucker, "It is our hope that we will find
this candidate HIV vaccine effective in inducing a virorous immune response and
eventually having a possible effect on the HIV pandemic." The SAAVI research, a
component of a program coordinated by the South African Medical Research
Council, is the only "homegrown" vaccine initiative in the world, although there
are several others underway, including programs headed by drug giants
GlaxoSmithKline and Merck.
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YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"