Subject: NIH Unit to Test AIDS Vaccine of Genentech
Date: Published: 4/24/91 (36 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Science:
    NIH Unit to Test Vaccine
    For Aids of Genentech

    SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.  -- Genentech Inc. said the
 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will
 begin human clinical trials of its new AIDS vaccine this week
 on a group of healthy volunteers.
    The vaccine uses a gene-spliced version of a protein on
 the virus's outer coat.  It will be given by random assignment
 to the first group of 10 volunteers who will receive 100
 micrograms of the vaccine.  Four volunteers will be given a
 placebo vaccine as part of the Phase I randomized study of
 two different dosages of the vaccine.
    Each volunteer will be given three injections, and then
 will be monitored for 52 weeks.  If the vaccine proves safe,
 another 10 volunteers will be randomly assigned to receive
 300 micrograms of the vaccine, and four volunteers will
 receive a placebo on the same timetable as the first round of
 tests.
    Investigators will evaluate the clinical and immunologic
 safety of the vaccine to "determine its immune response and
 compare them with the different doses."  The tests will be
 conducted at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and St. 
 Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis.  NIAID,
 sponsor of the vaccine trial, is a unit of the National
 Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

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