HIV vaccine development effort update

As of symposium on HIV vaccine development in Cape Town on October, 11th, The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise appointed Dr. Alan Bernsteinof as its premier executive director. Bernsteinof was the founding president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and will now be at the forefront of the international alliance working to develop an HIV vaccine, comprised of researchers, funders and advocates.

The Enterprise was initially proposed by 24 pivotal HIV vaccine researchers in 2003 and has mobilized over $750 million US dollars for the vaccine development effort. According to The Enterprise’s website (http://www.hivvaccineenterprise.org/), the organization focuses on six specific areas of research:

1)vaccine discovery
2)laboratory standardization
3)product development and manufacturing
4)clinical trials capacity
5)regulatory issues
6)intellectual property (http://www.hivvaccineenterprise.org/)

The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise is also opening its first independent secretariat in New York, which Dr. Bernsteinof will have a critical role.

According to the Enterprises press release regarding the secretariat's opening,
"[t]he US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded up to US$7 million over the next seven years, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $20 million over the next four years to support the secretariat’s activities".

-Deshka