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AIDS Vaccine Shows Both Promise, Failure

Aired February 24, 2003 - 13:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: An experimental AIDS vaccine fails to protect most high risk people in testing. But researchers say results are promising among two minorities, Asians and blacks.
CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live on the set with details. This is pretty confusing, hard to sort it out.

COOPER: Well, it is confusing. And this was something that people have been waiting for for a long time. It was a huge trial, 5,400 people. The first phase III trial -- that is the last phase, by the way -- in humans of an AIDS vaccine. And what they found was confusing -- I actually brought the newspapers from today, Anderson. "USA Today": "Vaccine for AIDS Appears to Work," and the "New York Times": "Fails to Stop Infections." Confusing.

Part of it is how you define success, and what is the difference between a success and a failure in this case. I actually posed the same question to Dr. Donald Francis. He is the guy who spearheaded the study. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DONALD FRANCIS, VAXGEN: I think I would say that it is a failure and a success. The failure side is that 90 percent of the studies where we did not see an effect -- and that would be in the white and Hispanic populations, but in the other populations, especially prominent in African-American descent folks, there is at least a -- the door down the hallway of knowledge seems to be at least cracked open, and the challenge there is, can we make that door open more, and expand it to ultimately make a widely effective vaccine?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: To be clear, Anderson, what we are talking about here is 5,400 people. What they hoped was that they decrease infections by 30 percent. Overall, they decreased infections only by 4 percent.

Among African-Americans and Asians, the infection rate went down over 70 percent. The numbers are really small, though, Anderson: just over 300 African-Americans and about 77 Asians. The FDA probably is not going to think those are good enough numbers to be able to approve this.

COOPER: But can anyone say why it might be that in this grouping -- that among African-Americans, among Asians, that this vaccine seemed to do better? GUPTA: Well, the answer is no, because I asked the same question. They don't know why this is occurring. Is it the type of HIV? Is there a subtype of HIV that predominantly infects African- Americans and Asians, or is there some sort of genetic difference between African-Americans and Asians versus other populations that makes them more amenable to this vaccine, makes it work better in them? They don't know the answer, but that is one of the next steps they need to do in order to figure out why this works.

COOPER: Do you know where these trials took place? Was this a vaccine that was done in the United States?

GUPTA: Yes. Almost every state in the United States, as well as parts of Puerto Rico, I believe, and Canada. So, various places around the country, but all within the North American...

COOPER: So it's not the case that it was a different strain of HIV from overseas somewhere?

GUPTA: That's right.

COOPER: This is all the same...

GUPTA: Yes, you bring up a good point. Here in the industrialized world, in this part of the country, Subtype B is sort of the predominant type. The letters don't matter, but in subsaharan Africa, there are different subtypes which are more predominant. This was all supposedly the same subtype.

COOPER: All right. Interesting stuff. Sanjay Gupta.

GUPTA: We'll keep an eye on it. Yes.

COOPER: Thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 24, 2003 - 13:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: An experimental AIDS vaccine fails to protect most high risk people in testing. But researchers say results are promising among two minorities, Asians and blacks.
CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live on the set with details. This is pretty confusing, hard to sort it out.

COOPER: Well, it is confusing. And this was something that people have been waiting for for a long time. It was a huge trial, 5,400 people. The first phase III trial -- that is the last phase, by the way -- in humans of an AIDS vaccine. And what they found was confusing -- I actually brought the newspapers from today, Anderson. "USA Today": "Vaccine for AIDS Appears to Work," and the "New York Times": "Fails to Stop Infections." Confusing.

Part of it is how you define success, and what is the difference between a success and a failure in this case. I actually posed the same question to Dr. Donald Francis. He is the guy who spearheaded the study. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DONALD FRANCIS, VAXGEN: I think I would say that it is a failure and a success. The failure side is that 90 percent of the studies where we did not see an effect -- and that would be in the white and Hispanic populations, but in the other populations, especially prominent in African-American descent folks, there is at least a -- the door down the hallway of knowledge seems to be at least cracked open, and the challenge there is, can we make that door open more, and expand it to ultimately make a widely effective vaccine?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: To be clear, Anderson, what we are talking about here is 5,400 people. What they hoped was that they decrease infections by 30 percent. Overall, they decreased infections only by 4 percent.

Among African-Americans and Asians, the infection rate went down over 70 percent. The numbers are really small, though, Anderson: just over 300 African-Americans and about 77 Asians. The FDA probably is not going to think those are good enough numbers to be able to approve this.

COOPER: But can anyone say why it might be that in this grouping -- that among African-Americans, among Asians, that this vaccine seemed to do better? GUPTA: Well, the answer is no, because I asked the same question. They don't know why this is occurring. Is it the type of HIV? Is there a subtype of HIV that predominantly infects African- Americans and Asians, or is there some sort of genetic difference between African-Americans and Asians versus other populations that makes them more amenable to this vaccine, makes it work better in them? They don't know the answer, but that is one of the next steps they need to do in order to figure out why this works.

COOPER: Do you know where these trials took place? Was this a vaccine that was done in the United States?

GUPTA: Yes. Almost every state in the United States, as well as parts of Puerto Rico, I believe, and Canada. So, various places around the country, but all within the North American...

COOPER: So it's not the case that it was a different strain of HIV from overseas somewhere?

GUPTA: That's right.

COOPER: This is all the same...

GUPTA: Yes, you bring up a good point. Here in the industrialized world, in this part of the country, Subtype B is sort of the predominant type. The letters don't matter, but in subsaharan Africa, there are different subtypes which are more predominant. This was all supposedly the same subtype.

COOPER: All right. Interesting stuff. Sanjay Gupta.

GUPTA: We'll keep an eye on it. Yes.

COOPER: Thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com