Wyeth to Research AIDS Vaccine Delivery Methods
Posted on: Friday, 2 December 2005, 15:00 CST
By DUNSTAN PRIAL, STAFF WRITER
MADISON - Drug maker Wyeth announced on Thursday, World AIDS Day, that it has received a $32 million contract from the National Institutes of Health to help design delivery mechanisms for AIDS vaccines.
AIDS treatments are a "top priority" of the NIH, said Wyeth spokesman Gerald Burr.
"We're very proud to be working on this program with them," he added.
The five-year contract was awarded by the NIH's Division of AIDS of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The NIH is a research unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Burr said the contract would fund a joint research project conducted by Wyeth in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University and Beth Israel/Deaconess Hospital in Boston.
In a statement released Thursday, the NIH alluded to the partnerships it deems necessary to combat the spread of AIDS on a global level.
"Perhaps no other disease so thoroughly transcends every area of clinical medicine and basic scientific investigation, crossing the boundaries of the NIH Institutes and Centers," the statement read.
Forty million people, including more than 1 million Americans, are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, according to the NIH. The virus has killed 3.1 million people worldwide in 2005.
Wyeth spokesman Burr said researchers at Wyeth and the NIH are convinced that the most effective AIDS vaccines will be administered using more than one delivery system.
That's because the AIDS virus manifests itself in the body in so many forms, said Burr.
In addition to the $32 million in funding provided by the NIH, Wyeth will contribute $23 million to pay the salaries of fulltime researchers and to cover other miscellaneous expenses.
The contract announced Thursday was the third awarded by the NIH to Wyeth related to AIDS research.
The previous two totaled more than $37 million.
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E-mail: prial@northjersey.com
Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
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