Subject: Gene-Spliced Prototype Of AIDS Vaccine Produced
Date: Published: 12/5/86 43 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Gene-Spliced Prototype
   Of AIDS Vaccine Produced

   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Scientists said they have developed a
genetically engineered prototype vaccine that showed
promising results against the AIDS virus in test-tube
studies.
   Repligen Corp. developed the vaccine with help from
researchers at Malvern, Pa.-based Centocor Inc., Duke
University Medical School and the National Cancer Institute.
The biotechnology concern said the vaccine, injected into
goats, generated antibodies in the animals that "neutralized"
the AIDS virus in test-tube experiments.
   Repligen cautioned, however, that its results don't
necessarily mean that the vaccine will work in humans.
Moreover, developing a human vaccine is expected to take
years.
   Repligen's study, to be published in the Dec. 12 issue of
the journal Science, follows similar test-tube results using
a different prototype vaccine announced earlier this year by
Genentech Inc. of South San Francisco, Calif.  Several
companies are working on a vaccine against acquired immune
deficiency syndrome.
   Repligen's vaccine is an artificially produced fragment of
a protein found on the surface of the AIDS virus.  By
mimicking the virus, the fragment may be able to induce an
immune response against the virus in humans without causing
AIDS. 
   Unlike Genentech's vaccine, which was produced using cells
of Chinese hamsters, Repligen's was made using bacteria
cells.  Repligen asserted that the use of bacteria should
enable it to produce large quantities of the vaccine more
cheaply than similar vaccines made with mammalian cells.

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