Dr. Gallo given $15 million grant to develop therapeutic vaccine!

[J220]

From http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070802-00522000-bc-us-aidsvaccine.xml

$15M allocated to AIDS vaccine research

BALTIMORE, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A U.S. scientist who co-discovered the virus that causes AIDS will use a $15 million grant to develop a potential vaccine.

Dr. Robert Gallo of the University of Maryland said at a news conference that he will use the five-year grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to test a vaccine that could potentially eliminate the virus in already infected cells, The Washington Times said Wednesday.

The vaccine has been tested successfully on monkeys.

The grant is part of the Gates Foundation's Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, which started last year with $287 million in grants.

Gallo has a public-private partnership with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Profectus BioSciences, a spinoff of the university's Institute of Human Virology, the newspaper said.

[JamieD]

Only infected a month and I am already learning that just because something seems 'promising' in vitro or in animal models does not mean that it has any real life, practical applications in humans. It's so discouraging. 

[bimazek]

IMHO ... emphasis on humble...
it seems to me that science is getting very very very close...
to therapedic vaccine for hiv

and many many other great things

one year and counting since diag.

[JamieD]

IMHO ... emphasis on humble...
it seems to me that science is getting very very very close...
to therapedic vaccine for hiv

and many many other great things

one year and counting since diag.

I pray to God that oneday, sometime before my life is ruined even further, that there will be a therapeutic vaccine or pill that you can simply take that will not only stop the progression of HIV completely but also reverse any deleterious effects of the virus.

[MitchMiller]

Gallo had been running a TAT inhibitor vaccine trial in the Baltimore area (affiliated with U of MD).  I'm wondering if this is the one and the same.  The original study was small with a minimum tcell count (I think of 350 for a certain period of time on medications).

[J220]

Hang in there Jamied, you are still in a bad part of the emotional, post-diagnosis curve (if my personal experience is any indicator). Although you are right that not all research advances will translate into human therapies, at tleast the pipeline is 'bursting' with very, very exciting possibilities. Just take it a day at a time, we have all been where you are now, and no, it's no fun. But things do get much better emotionally, again I speak from experience. And, I tell you that things are moving very very fast on the science front, and this is not wishful thinking nor delusion, it's the reality. We may be seeing the very things you are praying for in the next couple years. Cheers, J.

[LittlePill]

J220, I'm newly diagnosed as well and very impatient. Anyway, I wanted to say thank you for your positive attitude and I pray that you are right in what you're saying.

[Cerrid]

What did Gallo do in the last 22 years since he "co-discovered" the virus?

[J220]

As Mitch said, I believe he has been working on an anti-tat based vaccine for the last years, and it's possible this is what he plans to take to trials. Let's hope it works...J.

[jivemiguel1]

Gallo didn't codiscover the Aids virus, he stole a frenchman's work and claimed it for himself.  He could work on it another twenty years, I still wouldn't trust a thing he says or does.

[J.R.E.]

Article :
Many people will remember the heated contest over who discovered the virus that causes AIDS, and the patenting of the consequent blood tests, which took place between Dr. Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Dr. Anthony Gallo at the National Cancer Institute in Washington.
The origin of AIDS has presented numerous puzzles to scientists since the first recognized cases appeared in the early 1980s. Until 1984 its cause was the subject of fierce debate. Scientists, public health authorities and gay community leaders blamed everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect experiment involving the clotting factor given to hemophiliacs.

There was a possibility — later proven to be the case — that a handful of cases known in 1981 were the first of many, that an infectious agent was responsible. At the time, health experts had no idea how rapidly the disease was spreading. It so happened that the new syndrome exceeded their worst fears.

That report produced a crescendo of activity by researchers. And in the search for the cause of AIDS, two labs and the titanic egos of the men that ran them took center stage.

Dr. Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Dr. Anthony Gallo of the National Cancer Institute in Washington both raced to find the cause of the disease.

On January 23, 1983, Montagnier found a suspect virus he called LAV (Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus). Montagnier published his findings in May 1983 so that other researchers could test his results, a standard procedure.

In July, the Pasteur Institute sent a sample of LAV to Gallo. Another sample of LAV was sent in September, and by December, Gallo's lab was successfully cultivating LAV.

But Gallo had his own theory of what caused AIDS. A few years earlier, in his search for the cause of cancer, Gallo had discovered two retroviruses that looked similar, which he called HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus). In December 1983, he submitted a paper for publication proposing the theory that an HTLV-type retrovirus was the cause of AIDS.

Then, on April 23, 1984, Margaret Heckler, the secretary of health and human services, announced that Gallo had isolated the virus which caused AIDS, that it was named HTLV-III, and that there would soon be a commercially available test able to detect the virus with “essentially 100 percent certainty.”

Dr. Gallo stood before the press conference at the National Cancer Institute to announce that he had discovered the virus. What he neglected to mention was that Montagnier had also identified what turned out to be the same virus. The two institutes had previously shared samples; they agreed to publish together and even make a joint announcement. But when the press got wind of the news, the NCI felt compelled to proceed without the French.

"If I could relive those days, I wish they had been at the press conference," Gallo said. "I was a little swept away."

At the press conference, Gallo showed pictures of HTLV-III. But it didn't look anything like HTLV-1 or HTLV-2, and it was hard to see how they could be of the same family. As it turned out, the picture of HTLV-3 was actually a picture of the LAV virus sent to Gallo by Montagnier.

The cause of AIDS had been discovered by Gallo. Or was it?

The French didn't think so. The picture of Gallo's HTLV-3 was indisputably a picture of Montagnier's LAV virus.

On the same day Gallo announced that he had found the cause of AIDS, he filed a U.S. patent application for a blood test that would detect signs of the virus in people.

By May 17, private companies were already applying for licences to develop a commercial test that would detect evidence of the virus in blood. In addition to its usefulness for patients, a test was wanted to screen the nation’s supply of donated blood.

In 1985, a blood test, ELISA, became available that measures antibodies to HIV, which thereby detects the body’s immune response to HIV. This blood test remains the primary method for diagnosing HIV infection.

But there was also considerable and often acrimonious controversy, including accusations that Gallo improperly used a sample of HIV produced at the Pasteur Institute.

And so began a three-year, high-level diplomatic negotiation between the U.S. and France.

The controversy which would embroil the American scientist's career for almost the next decade began when the United States government denied the French scientists a patent for the AIDS test and awarded one to Gallo’s team instead. The patent would be worth about $100 million a year in sales and $100,000 personally to Gallo.

The Pasteur Institute challenged the patent in court. Gallo did not deny that Montagnier had preceded him in isolating the virus, but he argued that it was proof of the causal relationship and the development of the blood test which were most important, and he maintained that these advances had been accomplished using a virus which had been independently isolated in his lab.

This first stage of the controversy ended in a legal settlement that was highly unusual for the scientific community: Gallo and Montagnier agreed out of court to share equal credit for their discovery. This settlement followed a review of records from Gallo's laboratory and rested on the assumption that the virus Gallo had discovered was different from the one Montagnier had sent him. "It could have happened differently," said Montagnier. "But everybody has their personality."

The two scientists continued to dispute each other's claims until 1987, when they finally agreed to share credit for the discovery of HIV after the president of the United States and the prime minister of France announced a joint agreement on the issue — the first time a medical research question had reached this level of political negotiation. More important, the identification of HIV provided a specific target for blood-screening tests and for scientists around the world conducting research to defeat AIDS.

In November 1990, the Office of Scientific Integrity at the National Institutes of Health commissioned a group at Roche to analyze archival samples established at the Pasteur Institute and the National Cancer Institute between 1983 and 1985. They concluded that the origin of the HIV isolate discovered by Gallo was the same as that discovered by Montagnier.

Today it is generally agreed that Montagnier's group was the first to identify HIV, although Gallo's group insists it contributed significantly to demonstrating that it causes AIDS. Furthermore, Gallo's group claims they were the first to grow the virus in an immortalized cell line, leading to the development of blood tests for HIV and the ability to screen donated blood for this virus. Also, Gallo insisted the work of Montagnier had relied on a technique previously developed by Gallo for growing T cells in the laboratory.

Gallo has often been criticized for being extremely competitive and has been accused of stealing discoveries from others. Critics argue that his fight to patent a device to detect whether blood is infected with AIDS delayed the technology's use for a year.

Gallo is currently the director of the Institute for Human Virology, an institution affiliated with the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.

Montagnier has received more than 20 major awards, including the Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur, the Lasker Prize, and the Gairdner Prize.

In 2002 Gallo and Montagnier together announced their partnership in a global research endeavor designed to speed the discovery of AIDS vaccines — believed by scientist worldwide to be our greatest hope in halting the HIV/AIDS epidemic worldwide.

Created under the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention working under the auspices of UNESCO, the Program for International Viral Collaboration will be co-directed by the two pioneering scientists, both universally recognized for their contributions to AIDS research over the last two decades.

"HIV/AIDS is worse. It is a chronic disease with no known cure and, like the common flu, continues to present new strains, making it difficult to treat, prevent, understand or anticipate,” Dr. Gallo said.

Dr. Montagnier echoes this sentiment. "HIV/AIDS is presently the greatest of threats to mankind and, unlike the Plague, it will not go away. This will occur only when medical science develops a treatment accessible to all and a successful vaccine to prevent infection."

http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/exec/view.cgi/29/2666

Ray

[denniss]

Gallo had been running a TAT inhibitor vaccine trial in the Baltimore area (affiliated with U of MD).  I'm wondering if this is the one and the same.  The original study was small with a minimum tcell count (I think of 350 for a certain period of time on medications).

Last I heard of these trials was that they were in phase 3 (phase 4 in "some parts of the world") and then silence.
http://www.aidsmeds.com/news/20020801clin018.html

And then he makes this prediction about there being a vaccine in 4 yrs time (I hope I did not misunderstand the translation!!!!)
http://lilanew.forumup.it/viewtopic.php?p=838&highlight=&mforum=lilanew (sorry it italian)

Is he sitting on something?

[Jake72]

I'd forgotten about the phase III trial initiated by Gallo, Gringeri, et al.  I wonder whether he IS sitting on something.

I also may have misunderstood the Italian, but I interpreted it as saying that Gallo says that a vaccine won't be available for at least three or four years but that he remains optimistic because a number of approaches that have been shown to be ineffective have been tossed out.  The article also says that Gallo thinks that one reason why it has been taking so long is that the US has reduced funding earmarked for research.  My apologies if I've got that wrong!!!

[denniss]

I also may have misunderstood the Italian, but I interpreted it as saying that Gallo says that a vaccine won't be available for at least three or four years but that he remains optimistic ...................

Jake,
LOL! I knew I must have got it wrong. Yours sounds right. Probably why there was no mention about it on this forum.
Where is Goldrake "I am electron engineer....." the Italian from somewhere in New England - looks like we need his help  .

[MitchMiller]

Here's a link to the TAT trial Gallo was affiliated with at Baltimore.  When I click to get more info about it, the link just refreshes the page.  I specifically remember they were recruiting at one point.  I have a feeling something didn't pan out... perhaps $$$... or maybe Gallo felt he had something better so he didn't want to waste research $$$ on something he considered inferior.   http://www.ihv.org/help/clinical_trials%20old/therapeutic_tat_vaccine.html

[jivemiguel1]

Dudes, there's Gallo's name coming up like some kinda GOD. Whatever, there will be no vaccine for atleast 20 years, even if then.  I've been dealing with this for a long, long time, best off if you just take your meds and like it.  As others have said, there's no money in a vaccine, theraputic or not.  Wish it weren't the case and hope that I'm wrong, but the professionals that I've dealt with have said at least twenty years.

[Jake72]

Well, some'professionals' as late as the mid-90s were predicting that most people infected with HIV at that time would be dead by the end of the decade.  They didn't foresee HAART.  Just like the rest of us, 'professionals' don't have crystal balls and can certainly be wrong.

We simply don't know.  Some professionals say that a therapeutic vaccine may be possible in 5-10 years.  Others think that it'll be decades away. Therapeutic vaccines seem to be getting much more attention now than they were around 2000 or so, and there are many candidates.  The most we can do is to keep up with legit. research and keep our fingers crossed.

Gallo isn't a god, of course, but any legit. research being pursued should be encouraged, and it's better that he's doing the research than not doing it.   

Personally, I find the advice 'take your meds and like it' to be condescending and dismissive. It's like telling a rape victim to 'just go to counseling and like it.'  In eight years, I've never missed a dose of my medication.  My attitude is upbeat, my counts are fine, and I'm grateful that the meds exist.  But will I ever 'like it'?  Doubtful.

[JamieD]

I personally think that a therapeutic vaccine is the best hope we have. I don't personally forsee a cure anytime soon, but a therapeutic vaccine will likely control the virus indefinetly. The only problem with being HIV+, IMO, is the medication toxicities. We can stop/halt/ and partially reverse HIV related toxicites but can not seem to get rid of the medication toxicities.
I have personally been looking at "T-Cell Vaccination", which seems to be encouraging for both HIV and Multiple Sclerosis. People with HIV tend to have antibodies against their own T-cells, and this vaccine is going to try to deactivate those antibodies.

[MitchMiller]

I agree that time to market for a therapeutic vaccine could be quite a long time.  It would seem that there would be quite a high bar to surmount to prove efficacy... like very large phase III trials over 3 -5 years.  However, that doesn't preclude that any one of us could be eligible to volunteer for a study.  There are some already in progress.  I think most readers are realistic but want to stay abreast of what's in the pipeline... so if and/or when one chooses to volunteer for a study they can make the most informed decision possible... because typically you'll get one chance as a study subject.  You probably won't be eligible for a second vaccine trial if you were a subject in a previous one that failed.

[Jake72]

I agree that time to market for a therapeutic vaccine could be quite a long time.  It would seem that there would be quite a high bar to surmount to prove efficacy... like very large phase III trials over 3 -5 years.

Actually, there is sort of a 'precedent' in this area.  Remember Vaxgen's failed AIDSVAX preventive vaccine?  That was tested in a three-year Phase III trial, with results announced in early 2003.  Recognizing that no vaccine is 100% effective, the FDA would have approved it if it had only been 30% effective (unfortunately, AIDSVAX couldn't even muster this).

(for more information, please see http://avac.org.phtemp.com/VAXGENe.htm )

Let's think about this.  The bar would logically be a lot higher for a preventive vaccine than for a therapeutic vaccine because the stakes are higher.  If a preventive vaccine fails, we'll have many more new HIV cases. which is a very serious issue.  If a therapeutic vaccine fails, this won't change anyone's sero-status, and patients can simply fall back on HAART.

I wouldn't think that approval for a therapeutic vaccine would be more difficult than the process used for a preventive vaccine.  It might even be a little easier (just my opinion).

[powerpuff]

Isn't the Russians doing a vaccine that also works as a therapeutic killing infected cells?

[NYCguy]

I was in that Vaxgen trial, so I guess we know it didn't work    I was pretty freaked when I was first diagnosed and found some info on the web that some docs had theorized that the vaccine could acctually make you worse and a fast progressor...then I found something about a follow-up study from vaxgen showing this wasn't the case.  damn I read way too much shit on the web during that time (before I found this forum!). 

Gallo is not a God of course, but because of his intimate knowledge of this disease and ability to raise attention and funding for it, I do pay attention when he does something.  It is a little weird though because i do remember his tat vaccine trial which was sort of competiting with Ensoli and the other Italians, and now this announcement but nothing about that.  strange.

[powerpuff]

Ithought a vaccine wasapreventative.it worked on monkeys? as whata therapeuticon infected cells? what about latent cells

[Dachshund]

Ithought a vaccine wasapreventative.it worked on monkeys? as whata therapeuticon infected cells? what about latent cells

Hey powerpuff, just curious are you HIV positive?

[ElGreco]

A therapeutic vaccine would be fantastic news for all hiv people but I think that especially most big pharma companies would not feel thrilled to see this development as this would result to huge loses in profits from their antiretroviral meds. I therefore have reasons to believe that these companies would prefer to see a preventive vaccine developing than a therapeutic one.
I am afraid that hiv in the years to come would become an easily controlled chronic condition, easily controlled with new advanced meds but also chronic... As far as the interests of big pharma are concerned:-(

[FiercenBed]

the whole vaccine thing seems to be typical government bureaucracy.....and not just the u.s. itz justa mess! after dealing with this 'thing' for over a year and 1,500 pills and $14, 500 in medication were all still talking about this magic cure. i mean do the math.

though i had friends die back in the 80's guess iv gota sarcastically say 'im lucky'.

big pharm is exactly like the the mafia or syndicate in the early 1900's. there all in bed in together. plotting planing and scheming TOGETHER to get as much money out of us as they can. and there is clear evidence of this. the government seems to be scared of them. they keep hiring elected officials as soon as they leave office for mega bucks. <CBS 60 Minutes>  HEY....dosnt this seem suspicious to anyone but me? will they really let a cure come to market?

i wonder what happens if you take income from antiviroals off the balance sheets for big pharm?

so back on topic.....what r we gonna get for $15 million dollars? more empty promises. jeesh im bitter...lol