The Minister of Science and Technology, Ben Ngubane, has called on business for increased support for the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative (Saavi), which is about to start clinical trials on an HIV/Aids vaccine.

The Minister said a vaccine was the best hope for either controlling or eradicating HIV/Aids from the globe.

He has asked business for increased financial support to ensure that the process of bringing vaccines to humans for clinical testing and then a roll-out of a successful vaccine is as efficient as possible. Saavi is a Cabinet initiative, which was established in 1999, and has been supported by the government through the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Department of Health (DoH) and Eskom for almost four years. The DST has contributed R10-million a year since 2000 and the DoH has recently increased its contribution from R5-million to R10-million a year and is committed to another five years at that rate.

Eskom is the largest corporate contributor to HIV vaccines globally, having committed in excess of R100-million to Saavi.

The agnecy has, in addition, attracted many millions from international agencies and governments. Director of Saavi Tim Tucker said, “We have made significant steps forward in the development of novel HIV vaccines in the laboratory. In the last few months we have manufactured enough of the vaccines to use in clinical trials, which we hope will start towards the end of 2004.

“We can now start the long process, over many years, to vaccinate individuals in the different phases of clinical trials.

Over the next 5 to 7 years these trials will show whether the vaccines that we have produced or those we have developed in collaboration with others induce a strong immune response to HIV, and if they are effective either individually or in combination.

“Most vaccines take more than 20 years to produce, and we are now four years down the track in South Africa”.

Saavi has entered into a collaboration with a US government-funded agency, the HIV Vaccines Trial Network, to collaborate on testing vaccines both in South Africa and the US.

These vaccines have been developed at the Saavi-funded group at the University of Cape Town and the Medical Research Council. “Phase I and II clinical trials cost many millions of dollars as do the massive phase III efficacy trials which will occur later, “ said Tucker.

“We also require extensive funding for our ongoing community education and mobilisation activities to educate South African communities about our work”.