Significant developments in AIDS vaccines are expected to bepresented this week to the fifth annual meeting of the NationalCooperative Vaccine Development Groups for AIDS, to be heldin Chantilly, Va.

The meeting will hear research presentations from many of thecompanies seeking to develop an AIDS vaccine, including TheBiocine Co. (Chiron Corp./Ciba-Geigy), MicroGeneSys Inc.,Immuno-AG rgp, Genentech Inc., Cambridge Biotech Inc.,VacSyn, Micro Vesicular Systems, Immune Products Ltd,Viagene Inc., Virogenetics, Agracetus and MedImmune Inc.

Seth Pincus, an AIDS expert with the National Institute ofAllergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAIDS) said this will be animportant year for AIDS vaccines "because it will be decidedwhich candidate drugs will be used in efficacy trials."

The meeting will cover the gamut of research available on AIDSvaccines, both present and future, said Margaret Johnston,associate director of the division of AIDS for the basic researchand development program at NIAIDS. Johnston said this will bethe most crucial of all AIDS meetings because of the potentialpayoff an AIDS vaccine may provide. "We are anxious to selectpromising vaccine candidates and move them quickly intoclinical development," she said.

Ten or 11 vaccines are now in early stage trials, she said,including six being tested at the NIAIDS, and it's tme toevaluate which should be moved into large-scale trials.

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