Book 5: HIV vaccines development

The severity of the HIV/ AIDS pandemic in human, public health, social, and economic terms makes it imperative that sufficient capacity and incentives should be developed to foster the early and ethical development of effective vaccines. Sponsor countries and relevant international organisations should join with agencies in South Africa to promote HIV vaccine development.

1.1 Given the global nature of the pandemic, the devastation it is wreaking, the fact that vaccine(s) may be the best long-term solution by which to control the pandemic, and the potentially universal benefits of effective HIV vaccines, there is an ethical imperative for global support for the effort to develop HIV vaccines.

1.2 This effort will require intense international collaboration and co-ordination over time, and will include countries with scientific expertise and resources, and countries and communities where candidate vaccines could be tested but whose infrastructure, resources and scientific and ethical capacities may be insufficient at present.

1.3 Though HIV vaccines should benefit all those in need, it is imperative that they benefit the populations at greatest risk of infection. Thus, HIV vaccine development should ensure that the vaccines are appropriate for use among such populations, in which it will be necessary to conduct trials. When developed, the vaccines should be made available and affordable to such populations.

1.4 HIV vaccine development activities take time, are complex, and require infrastructure, resources and international collaboration, therefore:

1.4.1 Potential sponsor countries should immediately include HIV vaccine development in their regional and national AIDS prevention and control plans;

1.4.2 South Africa as a host country should continue to develop HIV vaccine development in its national AIDS plans;

1.4.3 South Africa should continue to participate in HIV vaccine development activities nationally and/ or on a regional basis. Such activities should include identifying resources, establishing partnerships, conducting national information campaigns, strengthening its scientific and ethical sectors, and expanding its vaccine research to complement its other interventions;

1.4.4 Potential sponsors and international agencies should make early and sustained commitments to allocate sufficient funds to make a vaccine a reality, including funds to strengthen ethical and scientific capacity where trials will have to be conducted and to purchase and distribute future vaccines; and

1.4.5 Potential sponsors should establish partnerships with South Africa and undertake community consultations, strengthen necessary scientific and ethical components, and make plans for equitable distribution of the benefits of research.