Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center director and chief executive David Ho Da-i recently told a Hong Kong medical conference that his team is working on an HIV vaccine. And if everything goes well, Ho says the team will perform more animal and human clinical trials over the next two years in an effort to eventually get the vaccine to market, according to the Hong Kong paper, The Standard.
"This HIV vaccine under research could be a substitute for the conventional method of treating AIDS by taking pills on time after they have been diagnosed. HIV patients can be treated by injecting the vaccine-ready-made antibodies," Ho says, adding patients may have to inject themselves regularly to keep up their levels of antibodies.
"Under the existing treatment, HIV patients have to take large doses of pills on time and frequently throughout their lives. I hope to reduce the dosage to one pill per month," he added.
Ho first developed a form of the HIV vaccine, called ADVAX, in 2004 after 18 months of human trials.
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