rGP-160 Treatment Vaccine (VaxSyn): Canadian Study Finds No Benefit

A multi-center trial in Canada, which gave either recombinant GP-160 or placebo to 278 volunteers with HIV during a three-year study, found "no clinical benefit from this product nor any usefulness in maintaining immune competence," according to Chris Tsoukas, M.D., of Montreal General Hospital. Dr. Tsoukas noted that these results do not apply to preventive vaccine trials.

The Canadian study was completed in November 1995, but the results were not announced until a similar U.S. study was completed in March.

Only a brief announcement of the negative finding has been made at this time. Detailed results may be available in a few weeks.

Comment

This negative result illustrates the need for research in HIV pathogenesis, and particularly in the correlates of immunity. It is easy to produce an antibody response, or other kinds of immune response to HIV. What is much harder is to know what kinds of immune response are protective.

While difficult, this problem is not impossible. Studies of long-term nonprogressors (who have HIV but do not get sick), and of persons who have been repeatedly exposed to HIV and remained uninfected, may help to determine what kinds of immunity are effective in preventing or controlling infection.