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Wednesday, February 26, 2003The groups slammed VaxGen Inc. of Brisbane, Calif., saying the data does not back up the company's claims and could raise false hopes. "AIDSVAX fails to protect; VaxGen's claims of efficacy in black and Asian participants are misleading and premature," the groups said in the statement. "We call on VaxGen to submit the findings to a panel of outside experts assembled by the National Institutes of Health for a full examination of the data ..." The company said Monday that initial results of an important clinical trial of the AIDSVAX vaccine showed it did not prevent HIV infection better than a placebo. But it claimed "statistically significant" data showing that the vaccine might protect ethnic minorities, particularly blacks. ...VaxGen pins its assertions on nine infections among 111 blacks receiving a placebo and four infections out of 203 blacks who received the vaccine, according to the advocacy groups. The statement from the groups says the company's interpretation of the data could spur false hopes and stir racial divisions. Well, those are significant differences. And it could point to a genetic difference in the ability to respond to the vaccine. Is it overhyped? No more so than the warfari study (and plenty of others) have been. Perhaps less. posted by Sydney on 2/26/2003 09:28:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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