Aids Vaccine Trial Fails to Show Clinical Benefit

Meriden, Conn--A 5-year study at Walter Reed Army Institute ofResearch found no significant clinical benefit for patients receivingMicroGenesys, Inc's therapeutic AIDS vaccine,VaxSyn rpg 160,comparedwith placebo, the company has announced.

Preiminary analysis of data from the phase II study, conductedin more than 600 HIV-infected volunters, demonstrated the safteyof VaxSyn. According to the company, these data indicate thatMicroGeneSys's proprietary baculovirus expression vector system(BEVS) is a safe process for manufacturing human biologics thatare to be used in large numbers of patients receiving frequentinjections over a long period of time.

"Although there were no statistically significant differencesin clinical events,there were certain modest and time limitedeffects favoring VaxSyn. Further data analysis are being donethat may show that some groups of patients may have respondedfavorably to treatment with VaxSyn," the company said.