Western proposes first HIV vaccine facility

 

In February 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates jointly announced collaboration between the Government of Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI).  

 

One component of the initiative is $88 million to build a Pilot Scale HIV vaccine manufacturing facility – a secure, ultra high-tech facility able to produce a vaccine to be used in clinical trials around the world.

“This is exhilarating and promising news for London,” says Ted Hewitt, Vice-President (Research and International Relations) at Western.  

“We have our work cut out for us, as I am sure the competition will be tough, but London and Western have a great history of research and manufacturing success. This is exemplified by the leading research of Dr. Yong Kang in developing an HIV/AIDS vaccine.”

Western also announced Wednesday dramatic progress in creating a vaccine.

A vaccine, developed by Kang and his team at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western and licensed to Sumagen Canada Inc., has now been manufactured for use in trials - first, in toxicology trials using animal models and then in Phase 1 human clinical trials.

Sumagen Canada Inc, a subsidiary of Curocom of Korea, is fully funding Kang’s work on the HIV/AIDS vaccine,

Kang's vaccine uses a killed whole HIV-1, much like Jonas Salk's killed whole polio virus vaccine. The HIV-1 is genetically engineered so that it is non-pathogenic and can be safely injected, and can be produced in large quantities, according to university officials.

The vaccine has been manufactured at a bio-safety level 3 (BSL3) good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility in the United States. If such a facility had been available in Canada – as the federal government-Gates proposal is seeking - the vaccine could have been produced in Canada.

“It has been very difficult to manufacture our genetically engineered HIV-1 experimental vaccine, because there are only a few BSL3 GMP contract manufacturing organizations (CMO) available in the world,” says Dong Joon Kim, CEO of Sumagen.

“For this reason, we welcome the Canadian government’s plan to establish a BSL3 GMP facility in Canada for future manufacture of candidate HIV/AIDS vaccines.

“We have overcome a major hurdle in the development of our HIV/AIDS vaccine which is now ready for clinical trials,” adds Kim.

Toxicology trials will soon get underway at a contract research organization in the United States and results should be ready in approximately three months. Phase 1 human clinical trials could begin in early spring at a number of trial sites in North America involving HIV positive individuals who are not yet symptomatic with AIDS.

Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best was hopeful Western and London will have a larger role in curbing the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

“HIV/AIDS has taken more than 25 million lives and today 35 million people are living with HIV,” she says. “London now has an opportunity to show that we can play a key role in saving lives around the world. We are ready.”

Western and other the contenders must submit a full proposal for the facility by March 25, 2009.

 

(this story updated June 30, 2009)