A long-sought vaccine to treat the scourge of AIDS and a possible link between food and autism are creating a buzz in the global medical community thanks to London research.
HIV/AIDS: A big day for area researchers
Joe Matyas
The London Free Press
October 18, 2006
It may be called Curovax, maybe not.
BREAKTHROUGH: Medical researcher Dr. Yong Kang, right, in his lab at the UWO Siebens Drake Research Centre with Dr. Dong Joon Kim, president of Curocom Co. Ltd., are heralding a vaccine for AIDS. (MORRIS LAMONT/The London Free Press)
Whatever it's named, it could be the HIV/AIDS treatment for which the world has been waiting.
A vaccine developed at the University of Western Ontario is one step away from being tested on humans, it was announced Oct. 17.
Thousands of researchers around the world have been working on HIV/AIDS treatments, "but (Western professor Dr. Yong) Kang is the only one who's made it this far," said Ted Hewitt, Western's vice-president of research.
Everything is in place to manufacture and test the vaccine, except for approval for clinical trials from the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, said Kang, the leader of a team of researchers who spent 19 years and $7 million developing the vaccine.
"We're expecting we can have approvals for Phase 1 human trials within one year," Kang said.
The vaccine has been successfully tested in macaque and rhesus monkeys and holds the promise to be "useful" in both the prevention and treatment of AIDS, said Kang.
"God willing," he said. "Perhaps we can cure HIV infection. This is our hope."
A U.S. patent has been issued, a U.S. manufacturer engaged to make the vaccine and a Korean company has secured the market rights to it, said Kang.
"We need $45 million to $50 million to complete our human trials. You cannot fund that through research grants. That's why we needed an industrial partner."
Curocom Co. Ltd., a Korean company with divisions specializing in biotechnology, information technology and venture capital, is setting up a subsidiary in Canada to test, market and distribute the vaccine.
Dr. Dong Joon Kim, president of Curocom, said the company has already spent $20 million to procure the rights to Kang's vaccine and will invest another $50 million in the human trials process.
The company came on board because the vaccine already has patents in 34 countries and because of Kang's international reputation as a virologist and researcher, he said.
Kang said it's premature to say the vaccine will be a smashing success, "but we certainly hope and believe it will be successful."
Following FDA approval, the vaccine will be tested on 30 humans in the first phase and about 300 in a second phase to determine its safety and effect.
"We need people who are immuno-competent," Kang said. "We will have no trouble recruiting volunteers."
By immuno-competent, Kang means people infected with HIV, but not showing signs of AIDS. Kang said the vaccine could be available for such treatment in three years and as an AIDS prophylactic in six years.
Kang said the vaccine was developed using techniques similar to those used by Jonas Salk in his polio vaccine.
It's a whole-virus vaccine approach intended to neutralize HIV and attack it on three levels, he said.
The vaccine uses a combination of killed HIV virus, plus a virus genetically altered in the lab to carry the harmless HIV cells through the body to prompt an immune response.
AIDS has killed 25 million people since it was discovered in 1981 and as many as 43 million people are currently infected with HIV, Kang said.
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