Malawi to launch preventive AIDS vaccine trial

Malawi is scheduled to launch its first trial of a preventive AIDS vaccine in June 2004. A team of researchers from Malawi and the United States plans to evaluate a candidate called MRK-Ad5 in roughly 40 healthy HIV-uninfected volunteers. Malawi is one of six countries participating in an international Phase I safety study of the candidate; overall the study will enroll more than 400 volunteers. The trial is being conducted by the US HIV Vaccine Trials Network and Merck and Co.