Thailand rejects criticism of AIDS vaccine trial.

2004 FEB 11 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Thailand dismissed criticism by American HIV researchers that a massive test of a possible AIDS vaccine on thousands of healthy Thais would fail, saying the U.S.-funded trial still has hopes of breaking new ground.

Twenty-two leading U.S. HIV scientists alleged that the 16,000 Thai volunteers who were expected to receive a shot over the next 2 years will receive a cocktail made of two antiquated AIDS drugs, each of which failed previous human tests.

The researchers, including a co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, Robert Gallo, also said the U.S. government was wasting $119 million by funding the experiment. They made the allegation in a signed opinion article published in the U.S. journal Science.

"We admit each drug by itself doesn't work, but that's why we started this project - to see if the combination could work," said Dr. Prasert Thongcharoen, chairman of the Thai National AIDS Commission's subcommittee on HIV Vaccine Development.

Prasert said the trial underwent strong technical and ethical scrutiny by more than 11 committees that included both Thai and American researchers.

The teams considered canceling the trial after the failure of a smaller test by Bangkok authorities, but in discussions at a UNAIDS and Communicable Disease Control forum in Geneva last year, "Everyone agreed we must go on to learn exactly what could happen," he said.

The earlier trial, which began in 1999 and was declared a failure last year, was conducted with 2500 Thai drug addicts and used only the trial vaccine AIDSVAX.