22 Jan 2015 21:23

Russian HIV vaccine passes second phase of clinical trial - health ministry

MOSCOW. Jan 22 (Interfax) - The Russian Health Ministry has said that all three Russian candidate vaccines against the HIV have passed the first stage of the clinical trial, and the research will continue.

"All three preparations have by now passed the first stage of clinical trials," Health Ministry spokesman Oleg Salagai told Interfax on Thursday.

One of the candidate vaccines, which is being funded on a competition basis under the 2013-2020 governmental program for development of the pharmaceutical and medical industry, is already through the second stage, he said. The program is coordinated by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.

"The results of clinical studies are now being analyzed, following which the projects to develop efficient HIV vaccines will continue," Salagai said.

A day earlier the head of the Federal Medical Biological Agency, Vladimir Uiba, told an Interfax press conference that his agency's project to develop an HIV vaccine was suspended due to lack of funding.

Meanwhile, doctors are alarmed by the spread of the HIV infection in Russia. According to Rospotrebnadzor, a federal consumer rights watchdog, more than 860,000 HIV cases have been registered in Russia, and the figure rises annually by 10%.

Each day, 200 people in Russia are diagnosed with HIV infection, the head of the Federal Center for AIDS Prevention and Treatment, Vadim Pokrovsky, told Interfax earlier.