HEILIGENDAMM, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government plans to allocate some 1.5 billion rubles ($58 million) on a project to develop an anti-AIDS vaccine, Russia's chief epidemiologist said Friday.
"We are completing a draft government resolution to allocate some 1.4 billion rubles, or $40-$50 million, in funds to boost research for an anti-AIDS vaccine," Gennady Onishchenko said.
The sanitary chief's statement came on the final day of the Heiligendamm summit, where leaders of the Group of Eight countries pledged to channel another $60 billion to fight AIDS, malaria and TB in Africa.
"We have started allocating $500 million through other programs," Onishchenko said. "But since the issue [of granting $60 billion] was raised only at the summit, we will study it and could determine how much Russia would contribute... in September."
