Mixed Results: AIDS vaccine falters in whites, may help blacks
By Nathan Seppa
In its first large test, an AIDS vaccine has failed to shield an at-risk population from acquiring HIV, the virus that causes the disease.
The results, released by the biotechnology company VaxGen of Brisbane, Calif., may mark a turning point in AIDS-vaccine research, says Norman Letvin of Harvard Medical School in Boston. While VaxGen should be applauded for “a landmark effort” to get a vaccine to trial, he says, many scientists expected this vaccine to fail.