Robert T. McNally, Ph.D., president and CEO of GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB/OTC Bulletin Board: GOVX), a biotechnology company that creates, develops and tests innovative HIV/AIDS vaccines, has contributed an article on the search for an HIV vaccine to the October 15 issue of Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN).
In the article, titled "Search for Effective HIV Vaccine Intensifies: Progress to Date Result of Robust Funding and Cooperation Between Many Agencies," Dr. McNally reviews a set of significant advances that spotlight the current state of the HIV vaccine search. These include the finding, based on a Phase 3 trial known as RV144 and publicized by the US Military HIV Research Program, that a combination of two vaccines based on HIV strains that commonly circulate in Thailand was safe and modestly effective in preventing HIV infections. He also notes a report from the NIAID Vaccine Research Center on the discovery of three human antibodies that neutralize HIV, two of which were shown to target a broad range of HIV strains.
"The search for an HIV vaccine is an ongoing research goal that continues to challenge the top minds in the infectious disease research community. Continued funding is vital, and cooperation among various agencies may play an important role," writes Dr. McNally in the article. "As Seth Berkley and Alan Bernstein—who are president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, respectively—wrote in The New York Times in July: 'Ending HIV/AIDS urgently requires a vaccine. The evidence that a safe and effective HIV vaccine can be developed is stronger than ever.'"
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