- Sputnik International
Russia
The latest news and stories from Russia. Stay tuned for updates and breaking news on defense, politics, economy and more.

Russia tests three new HIV vaccines

© RIA Novosti . Mikhail Mordasov Russia tests three new HIV vaccines
Russia tests three new HIV vaccines - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Russian vaccine developers will join forces in a bid to produce new, effective HIV vaccines, the head of one of the companies said on Monday.

Russian vaccine developers will join forces in a bid to produce new, effective HIV vaccines, the head of one of the companies said on Monday.

The first examinations of three vaccines, being developed in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk, showed their safety, said Yevgeny Stavsky, the head of Novosibirsk-based company Vector. Further tests, to be jointly carried out by the three vaccine developers, have to reveal if the vaccines are effective enough, he said.

"The main and most expensive part of work is now to be implemented," he said, adding that a decision by the three vaccine developers to work together would facilitate and speed up the process.

The Russian government allocated 1 billion rubles ($32.15 million) in 2007 for the development of the vaccines, Stavsky said. A decision on future investments is expected by the end of the year, he said.

According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 33 million HIV-infected people in the world, with half of them aged between 15 and 24. Some 25 million HIV-related deaths have been registered in the world, and the number of infections rises by 2.7 million each year, WHO data says.

In Russia, about 570,000 new HIV infections have been registered in the past three years, the deputy head of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences' Virology Institute said.

Only one HIV vaccine, developed in the United States and tested in Thailand, has proved its relative effectiveness so far, the head of the AIDS department of the Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency's Immunology Institute was quoted by the Vector company's press service as saying. The U.S. government had spent $160 million on its development, Igor Sidorovich said.

However, the immunity protection level of this "most effective" vaccine is registered at just 30 percent, providing that injections are made six times during a year.

"Even given this quite modest effectiveness, it is possible to save about 1 million lives a year using the vaccine," Sidorovich said. But HIV in Russia has different variations from those registered in the United States and Europe, which means domestic efforts are crucial for protecting Russians against HIV, he added.

Some 500 people have already been selected to participate in the testing of new vaccines, the director of St. Petersburg's Biological Medical Center, Andrei Kozlov, said.

NOVOSIBIRSK, November 22 (RIA Novosti)

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала