Berna Biotech teams with IAVI, Gallo lab, Uganda for test.(Brief Article)

2002 MAR 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Swiss vaccine manufacturer Berna Biotech, Ltd., has joined a cross-national team to test a new vaccine to prevent HIV infection and AIDS designed specifically for use in developing countries.

Berna will produce doses of the vaccine for human trials starting this year in Uganda and the U.S. This public-private partnership to speed AIDS vaccine science was announced at the World Economic Forum in New York.

Under the leadership of Dr. Robert Gallo, credited with the codiscovery of HIV, and Dr. George Lewis, the vaccine is in the final stages of laboratory development at the Institute of Human Virology (IHV), a center of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Development and testing of the vaccine are being pursued with financial and scientific backing from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

Berna is developing new manufacturing processes for the novel vaccine, which consists of synthetic pieces of HIV's genetic material inserted into weakened bacteria.

Berna adds Switzerland to a growing roster of European companies working with IAVI to accelerate progress toward finding an AIDS vaccine. On other vaccine projects, IAVI is partnering with manufacturing firms in the U.K. and Germany as well in Africa, India and the U.S. In addition, the governments of the U.K., Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, and Denmark as well as Canada and the U.S. have pledged direct monetary support to IAVI.

The IAVI-IHV vaccine has been tailored for optimal use in developing countries: the techniques needed to manufacture the vaccine are relatively inexpensive; the formulation is designed to facilitate storage and transportation in developing countries; the vaccine can be administered orally, without the need for injection equipment.

In addition, the vaccine is expected to engage the arm of the human immune system that protects the mucous membranes of the genitalia. This could be critical in preventing heterosexual transmission of HIV, the dominant mode of infection in developing countries.