VACCINES AGAINST HIV
151. Evidence presented to the Committee demonstrated
that great hopes are being placed in the future discovery of a
vaccine that will be effective at preventing the transmission
of the virus or mitigating its effects. Financial investment and
scientific attention devoted to this area of research have increased
significantly recently, with several encouraging multi-national
partnerships bringing together private and public sectors. Work
is concentrated on investigating potential vaccines, testing their
safety and efficacy and considering how such a vaccine could be
made available to the developing world. We heard evidence that
most current research is focussed on sub-types of the HIV virus
found in the developed world. We believe that vaccine development
partnerships and investors should take steps to ensure that research
prioritises sub-types of the HIV virus found in developing and
worst-affected countries as least as highly as those more commonly
found in the developed world.
152. The UK Government was the first national contributor
to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative with an initial donation
of £200,000, followed by £14 million in 1999. This was
an important step towards encouraging other countries to invest
and other countries such as the United States, Canada, Ireland
and the Netherlands have followed the United Kingdom lead. There
was a consensus among witnesses that the most optimistic timescale
for the discovery of a safe and effective vaccine is between seven
and ten years. This timescale has been postulated for some considerable
time. We were in agreement with Dr Peter Piot when he said, "I
am very clear that we cannot rely on technology. I deeply, deeply
hope that we will have a vaccine, the sooner the better. We are
not going to make it with technology, it is with people".[188]
Jeff O'Malley said, "In the past few years I have welcomed
the increased attention to the development of an HIV preventative
vaccine, but I fear that the sexiness of a magic bullet is such
that perhaps there has been inadequate attention paid to funding
what can make a difference today and tomorrow".[189]
153. We believe that the Department for International
Development should continue to support the search for a vaccine.
We believe that all spending on HIV prevention should be carefully
monitored to ensure that there is a balance between searching
for prevention technologies such as vaccines and microbicides
and work aiming to achieve behavioural and social change and to
promote the use of condoms. The latter will clearly remain the
only proven effective means of prevention for the foreseeable
future and therefore a careful balance of priorities needs to
be maintained so that this work does not get neglected.
154. An important factor in the development of a
vaccine is its availability in resource-poor countries. The experience
of access to treatments for HIV infection demonstrates that the
private sector alone is unlikely to market a vaccine that is affordable
to developing countries' budgets. We congratulate those international
partnerships which are grappling with this problem in advance
and attempting to ensure that use of the vaccine in the developing
world will be its first priority. We heard evidence from the National
Aids Trust that the European Commission is funding a research
programme, EUROVAC, through the private sector. We hope that
the EUROVAC programme, and other similar initiatives, will take
steps to ensure that public money is only used to fund the development
of products which will be affordable in developing countries.[190]
155. In November 2000, the Prime Minister requested
the cross-departmental Performance and Innovation Unit to examine
how to achieve better availability of drugs to prevent and treat
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries. An
interim report identified a number of both 'push' and 'pull' instruments
aimed at stimulating greater research and development activity
and strengthening incentives by improving the prospective value
of the market. In the 2001 Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
announced a package of measures aimed at encouraging pharmaceutical
and other companies to commit resources to the prevention and
treatment of such diseases. Measures included:
- consultation on a new vaccines tax credit;
- additional tax relief for research into such
diseases;
- consultation on new measures to facilitate the
donation of drugs and vaccines to international aid organisations
and public health authorities.
DFID's Globalisation White Paper also made a number
of proposals to encourage pro-poor research on diseases such as
HIV/AIDS including the use of public purchase funds whereby governments
would undertake to buy vaccines for developed country markets
at a fixed price, providing the private sector with the financial
incentive that is now missing. Further suggestions included differential
pricing and extending the period of intellectual property protection
and the use of tax credits. We welcome the initiatives of the
United Kingdom Government in attempting to secure better availability
of drugs to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB in the
developing world.
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