Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Flu activity accelerating. Appearing on WUSA – Channel 9 today. Also, appeared this evening on Wolf Blitzer “Situation Room” regarding the flu epidemic. Went very well This evening meeting of the P5 vaccine consortium in Building 31, 7A-24. Successful meeting involving all of the players from Gates Foundation (Trevar Mundell, Stefano bertozzi, Peggy Johnston, Nina Russell), the Army (Nelson Michael, Jerome Kim), HVTN (Larry Corey, Peter Gilbert, etc.) See pdf for full contingent. image.pdf Main purpose of the meeting was to re-group and summarize where we are in the planning of the P5 (Pox Protein Public Private Partnership) for HIV vaccine). Presentation by Larry Corey, Gepi Pantaleo, Peter Gilbert, Julie McElrath, Glenda Gray (RSA) on the NYVAC +/- DNA + protein approach; and by Dan Barouch, Hanneke Schuitemaker (Crucell) on the Adenovirus (Ad 26/35 + protein + adjuvant) approach. One of the problems is that Novartis, who is supposed to supply the envelope protein for the Corey trial will be about 1 year late in delivering the protein. Many of us are angry with them about this since they have not been forthcoming. Also, the correlates of immunity from the RV144 (Thai) trial indicate that protection might be related to response against the V2 loop of the envelope and specifically against residue 169 in this region. Problem is that the envelope used in both proposed trials will not even address this. The envelope that grows well in cell cultures will be used. Balance of empiric with scientific. Gepi Pantaleo, Larry Corey and I went to dinner in Bethesda at Grapeseed Restaurant after the meeting (5:30 to 7:45 PM) to reflect and commiserate. It will be largely my responsibility to decide go-no go from Phase 1 (starts in mid-end of 2014) to Phase IIa/b (2015 - 2016), the latter costing over $100 million and so this will be an important decision based on a combination of science and best guess. Stay tuned.