HIV vaccines - time to face the hard reality ?

Implications: Persisting with developing a vaccine for HIV may be no more realistic than attempting to produce one for the common cold. There is a link - both are caused by adenoviruses. If Merck, after 20 years has not succeeded for HIV, shouldn't development resources on vaccines now be channeled to more productive areas of research on HIV ?

Analysis: In the mid-1980s President Reagan announced the goal to develop an AIDS vaccine in three years. This was considered by medical experts then to be somewhat optimistic.

After repeated attempts - including 20 years by Merck & Co - whose reputation in developing vaccines is unrivalled - we have yet another failure. The latest vaccine the company trialed turned out to be completely ineffective.

So isn't it time to accept that we are no more likely to succeed in developing a vaccine against AIDS than we are against another disease caused by adenoviruses, the common cold ? It is not for want of a sizeable potential market that companies long gave up on the latter. Should not this realism now be brought to the issue of vaccines for AIDS ?

If we accept that we are not going to succeed in developing an effective AIDS vaccine, that has unpleasant implications for combatting it from now on. But isn't it now high time to face the hard reality ? That way, at least resources could be channeled more productively - including towards much needed novel treatments. In contrast to vaccines, there there is an impressive record of development of new HIV therapies over the past 20 years.