After 10 years of research the FDA has approved the first ever HIV drug for human trials. This dones’t mean it’s guarenteed to work BUT it is the furthest any such vaccine for HIV has made it in the FDA approval process. Of course, over here in the USA, we will probably end up buying something like this from Canada. We all know that Canadian drugs are cheaper than buying it in the states.
“If it is successful, it’ll be a jackpot for Western in terms of claiming our stage in the world as an institution that does something important,” said University of Western Ontario President Amit Chakma. “Sometimes you need those jackpots to raise your profile. This would be the equivalent of RIM at Waterloo or MRI at NYU.”
HIV Aids vaccine could be on the horizon
On December 20, 2011 a UWO team led by Dr. Chill-Yong Kang held a press release that they had recently received approval from the FDA to begin human clinical trials of an HIV/AIDS vaccine they’ve been working on for the past 10 years.
The three trial phases for the vaccine will take at least five years and like other previous vaccine trials, may not ultimately prove successful. Imagine if this works and it becomes another one of the over the counter drugs you can find at any corner pharmacy. Still, the university says the vaccine “holds tremendous promise” having already been shown to work in animals and being the first and only HIV vaccine to be based on the whole, deactivated virus.
“I feel very excited,” said Kang, a former dean at Western who moved here from Ottawa, Canada 20 years ago. “We can save millions of lives should this vaccine work.” It would be another notch for Ottawa’s reputation for creating distinguished scientists who create Canada drugs.
He compared the possible discovery to that of English scientist Edward Jenner’s discovery of a smallpox vaccine in the 19th century. “Now there’s not a single case of smallpox on earth. And that’s really a remarkable achievement in medicine,” Kang said.
The vaccine was developed through a partnership with Sumagen Canada, a subsidiary of a South Korean-based pharmaceutical venture company. If this works, it would be the greatest medical discovery of the 21st century!!
About Dr. Yong Kang – Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.C. – is a molecular virologist and professor of virology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario.
He was born in South Korea, was educated in Korea and Denmark for his undergraduate studies, immigrated to Canada in 1966 and became a Canadian citizen in 1971. He was trained at University of Toronto and has carried out his post-graduate studies at McMaster University, where he received his Ph.D in virology under supervision of Professor Ludvik Prevec in 1971.
This Dr. has had nothing to do with Risedronate (Actonel). These tablets and delayed-release (long-acting tablets) are used to prevent and treat osteoporosis (a condition in which the bones become thin and weak and break easily) in women who have undergone menopause (‘change of life,’ end of menstrual periods). Need to buy actonel? Try out a Candian pharmcay since risedronate tablets are also used to treat osteoporosis.
What about South Africa, are u goin to bring it to S.A and when if you bring it.