HIV vaccine awaiting federal approval

The makers of a new drug are waiting for approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to run phase two trials of its HIV vaccine.

Biotechnology firm GeoVax Labs has been developing the vaccine with Emory University, the Centre for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a previous trial on monkeys suppressed the Aids infection in the animals without the need for any additional drugs.

GeoVax now hopes to get the go-ahead for a human study involving over 200 "health volunteers" to "further evaluate the safety" of the vaccine.

Harriet Robinson, co-founder of GeoVax, told the newspaper she had not "anticipated the extent of vaccine control that was achieved in the already infected nonhuman primates", calling the results "highly promising".

A new institute to monitor the development of new HIV drugs was recently announced.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has formed the new Vaccine Discovery Branch as part of its Vaccine Research Programme in the Division of Aids.