NEW YORK, 10 January 2000—The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a collaborating center of the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS), hailed the Security Council for devoting the first session it has ever held on a health issue to the African AIDS epidemic. IAVI also called upon world leaders to dramatically accelerate international efforts to develop an affordable AIDS vaccine.

Seth Berkley, M.D., IAVI's president, said: "Africa faces an epidemic of Biblical proportions. We commend the U.S. Government and Ambassador Holbrooke for highlighting this critical issue."

"While the world must continue to fund traditional prevention and treatment initiatives, it is imperative that world leaders recognize that an affordable AIDS vaccine is the world's best hope for ending this epidemic."

Berkley continued: "As World Bank President James Wolfensohn noted last year in a letter to leaders of the G-8 nations, ëAn AIDS vaccine for low income countries is an international public good which is not likely to happen without innovative international public action.'"

Berkley also applauded U.S. Vice-President Al Gore's anticipated announcement that the Administration would seek $100 million from Congress to combat AIDS abroad and an initial $50 million to purchase and distribute vaccines against diseases that are ravaging poor countries.

Noting that IAVI has been calling for the creation of an AIDS Vaccine Purchase Fund since it was created in 1996, Berkley said: "The U.S. Government's leadership will be critical in enlisting governments, foundations and other donors to embrace the concept of vaccine purchase funds. Vaccine purchase funds will both ensure access in developing countries and serve as incentives for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries to engage in vaccine development."

"Smallpox was eradicated thanks to a vaccine," said Dr. Berkley. "Polio will soon follow. We urge the world to expand its commitment to AIDS vaccine development and ultimate distribution. Without political leadership and adequate resources, a vaccine against AIDS will continue to elude us."

In the face of 15,000 new infections each day, 95% of them in the developing world where there is little access to treatment, IAVI has been calling on governments to join a crash program to speed the development of a globally accessible AIDS vaccine in the shortest time possible.

At the heart of IAVI's scientific program is the Vaccine Development Partnership, a collaborative model that links scientists in industrialized and developing countries with those in private industry. IAVI provides funding, expert support, and guidance to move a promising vaccine approach from the idea stage into clinical trials as rapidly as possible.

IAVI's first two Vaccine Development Partnerships link scientists in the U.K. and Kenya, and the United States and South Africa, respectively. IAVI is currently exploring new collaborations linking academic and biotech industry vaccine designers in the U.S. and the European Union with clinical researchers in India, China, and Africa.

IAVI's Scientific Blueprint for AIDS Vaccine Development, a global strategic plan to speed the development of a vaccine, estimates that a crash program to develop a preventive vaccine would cost $500 million over the next seven years. Thus far, IAVI has secured commitments totaling more than US $77 million over the next five years to advance promising new vaccine concepts. Major donors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.K. and Dutch governments, the Rockefeller, Sloan, and Starr Foundations, the World Bank and UNAIDS. The organization is working to raise an additional $70 million by the end of 2001.

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative is an international non-profit scientific organization founded in 1996 whose mission is to ensure the development of safe, effective, accessible, preventive HIV vaccines for use throughout the world.

IAVI's work focuses on three areas: accelerating scientific progress, mobilizing political support through advocacy and education, and encouraging industrial involvement in AIDS vaccine development. IAVI works closely with UNAIDS, the World Bank, the EC and other partner organizations in industrialized and developing countries.

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