It would cost billions of rands to establish a mass production facility in South Africa for an Aids vaccine, the director of the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) Dr Tim Tucker said on Tuesday.
Speaking to Sapa at an Aids symposium at the Medical Research Council in Cape Town, he said he did not know exactly when the facility would be needed, or which products it would make.
However, the current estimate was that it would cost somewhere between R3 and R4-billion to set up, for which the state and international agencies would have to make provision.
SAAVI was currently investigating several vaccine technologies, of which two were being ”fast-tracked”. They were a DNA candidate-vaccine, which had been manufactured and was going for animal toxicity trials before moving on to a clinical phase which it was hoped would start in late 2004, and a so-called MVA
candidate, which was at the manufacturing stage.
He said there was reason to believe a successful vaccine, whether developed by SAAVI or by others, would be ready in seven to ten years.
Tucker also said SAAVI’s R64-million budget would have to more than double in the next two years or so if it was to do what it ought to. At the moment it was working predominantly with adults, but its target was adolescents, so its programmes would have to expand dramatically.
There was a need to prepare sites for phase three clinical trials, which would involve five to 10 000 participants and require a ”huge” staff complement and infrastructure.
There was also a need to develop business plans for SAAVI products and a national plan for rollout of a vaccine programme.
Tucker said SAAVI’s primary funders were the national departments of health, and of science and technology, and Eskom. It was also receiving two grants from the European Union — a third one would likely be wrapped up in a week or so — together with funding from the United States’ National Institutes of Health and
other international organisations.
SAAVI was about to embark on a ”fairly significant” fundraising endeavour among South African businesses and international agencies.
”We need a lot more to do what is required,” he said. – Sapa