"As we know there is no HIV vaccine. The Americans had high hopes of developing one, but the three vaccines developed most recently all failed trials. Today the specialists from Vector said there is a hope for an effective vaccine," a leading geneticist, Vladimir Shumny, said on Friday.
The scientist added that it is difficult to develop an HIV vaccine as the virus is constantly mutating. He also said that the polymorphous vaccine created by the research center might help to effectively prevent HIV, however.
At the same time, Shumny claimed that lengthy legal procedures could complicate the vaccine's chances of passing the necessary medical trials, not to mention getting it registered with the appropriate authorities.
"The first phase of trials will take at least three years," he explained.
A researcher at Vektor added that it was still too early to speak about the effectiveness of the vaccine, as the first phase of the trials has not started and its safety has not yet been proven.
A total of 37 HIV vaccines have been developed, but none of them have been successful, she added.
The Russian government has allocated one billion rubles ($39.4 million) to develop a HIV vaccine.
Since 1987, when the first HIV case was first reported in Russia, 388,871 cases have been registered in the country, and HIV-infected women have given birth to 1,200 children. Among the most infected areas in Russia are Moscow, Irkutsk, Samara, Orenburg, and the Leningrad Region.
At the end of 2005, 40.3 million people were HIV-infected worldwide, including 17.5 million women and 2.3 million children under the age of 15.
