MICROGENESYS AIDS VACCINE IN TROUBLE?

MicroGeneSys' candidate AIDS vaccine, called VaxSyn, has been withdrawn from a comparative US National Institutes of Health trial because the company could not agree with the NIH over the proposed dosing schedule. The vaccine has already been selected for inclusion in a $20 million US army trial program.

MicroGeneSys and development partner Wyeth-Ayerst took issue with the NIH and AIDS Clinical Trials Group proposals for the trial regarding the proposed dosing schedule, the duration of the study and the criteria being used to evaluate the vaccines. The company has said that it is withdrawing from the study due to requirements for the vaccine from its own development program.

The NIH is said to be angry with MicroGeneSys and does not accept the company's explanation for the withdrawal, according to a report in Nature (March 25). MicroGeneSys has run into conflict with the NIH before, after it was criticized for lobbying to get its own vaccine included in the US Army-funded trials; the NIH and AIDS activists said that VaxSyn had not proved itself sufficiently to warrant consideration over other vaccine candidates (Marketletter Novermber 2, 1992).