Press room ... 1997 archive

The President’s Call for a Special Project
for an AIDS Vaccine

May 21, 1997

San Francisco, CA—Project Inform, one of the nation’s best known and largest treatment information and research advocacy groups today described President Clinton’s call for a special 10 year program to develop an AIDS vaccine as both a welcome commitment and a somewhat hollow political gesture. Ben Cheng, Assistant Director of Project Inform’s Information and Advocacy Departments, said, “Everyone is encouraged that the President has given new attention to the need to develop an AIDS vaccine. But it’s not clear that setting a target date will in any way influence how long it takes to solve this difficult scientific challenge. Real breakthroughs are needed, not just public statements.” Martin Delaney, Founding Director of Project Inform, elaborated on this theme: “The biggest obstacle to getting an effective AIDS vaccine is not a matter of willpower, it is a matter of science. In this regard, we are no closer to a vaccine today than we were three or four years ago. Contrary to popular belief, there really have been no substantial advances in vaccine research recently which makes this task any more doable today. Rather than celebrate the call for a new program, we should be asking, why now? Why didn’t the administration call for such a program the day it took office, or at least a number of years ago? Little in the science of AIDS vaccine research has really changed since then.”

At a series of meetings sponsored nearly 4 years ago by Project Inform and the Harvard AIDS Institute (called the Madison Project) senior AIDS researchers from throughout the country called for the creation of special centralized programs like the one now announced by the Administration. One program proposed then by the scientists would have focused in a similar way on an AIDS vaccine. The scientists even recommended that the program be headed by Dr. David Baltimore, the same leader called upon today by the Administration. That earlier recommendation, however, was ignored by the administration which said, at the time, that it wanted instead to focus its efforts on building up the new Office of AIDS Research and doing its own evaluation of needs in AIDS research. Three and half years later, that process resulted in essentially the same recommendations made by the scientists of the Madison Project. “In my view,” Delaney said, “the Administration wasted several years creating its own bureaucracy to make what amounts to an obvious recommendation. But at least it’s finally going to happen.”

Brenda Lein, Director of Project Inform’s Information and Advocacy Departments, expressed another concern about the belatedly proposed vaccine project. “This proposal can only make a difference if the administration commits substantial new funds to AIDS research. Without additional funding, it will be little more than a public relations tool, one that could just as easily have been announced in 1993. Moreover, it’s critical that funding not come from other ongoing programs, including prevention research, or adult and pediatric therapy research. All of these must remain high priorities.”

Asked whether developing a vaccine within 10 years is a reasonable goal, Ben Cheng commented, “No one really knows how long it will take. Most estimates suggest that once a good candidate vaccine is found, it may take as long as 10 years just to prove that it works. But few scientists today believe that we have any truly promising vaccine candidates. Fundamental scientific obstacles still lie ahead of us. Still, if the President is serious and willing to commit the necessary funds, I’m confident that things will move faster than they would have otherwise."

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