AIDS vaccine years away, researchers warn
Found on New Scientist on Monday, 12 July 2004
A vaccine for AIDS is still years away, warns a new report, with progress being hampered by a lack of scientific, political and economic interest.
"The world is inching toward a vaccine, when we should be making strides," Berkley said during the launch of the report at the XV International AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand. "The single biggest obstacle is that vaccine development is that it is not a top scientific, political and economic priority."
He adds that less than one per cent of global spending on health product research and less than three per cent of all money devoted to AIDS goes towards developing a vaccine for the disease.
If you are a pessimist and believe in the greed of humans, you could assume that the progress is so slow just because it pays more to let a patient be sick. On one side, there are thousands of dollars paid for years of care; on the other side are a few dollars for a pill.