Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • Classified ads
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • Classified ads
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
News

What to do with $88 million?

Dan Lett
CMAJ June 15, 2010 182 (9) E415-E416; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-3256
Dan Lett
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Community health and prevention measures like safe injection sites? Vaccine delivery initiatives? International AIDS programs? Basic research?

Having seen the flagship initiative of Canada’s long-term HIV vaccine strategy blasted out of existence with the cancellation of plans to construct a pilot lot manufacturing facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canadian researchers and AIDS activists have a raft of views on how the government should repurpose the $88 million once ticketed for the initiative.

Anxious about how the government might spend that money, some are even calling for national consultations on a suitable plan to spend the money and ensure that Canada can adequately exploit fruits from the labour of the country’s AIDS and HIV vaccine research community.

For its part, though, the government is holding its cards close to its chest. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which oversees how monies will be spent under the $137-million Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI), says it likely won’t make a decision until the fall.

“We’re actively working on this,” says Dr. Rainier Engelhardt, PHAC’s assistant deputy minister of infectious diseases and emergency preparedness. “It’s certainly not years. We’re talking about the next few months.”

But all the options under consideration will make a contribution to finding or preparing for an HIV vaccine, Engelhardt says.

The manufacturing facility was to have specialized in the production of small lots of vaccine for clinical trials. But PHAC said the project was cancelled after it was determined that none of the four bidders “met the bar” to qualify to host the facility (CMAJ 2010. DOI:10.1503/cmaj.109-3255).

The $88-million facility was to be funded in part by a $28-million contribution from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Engelhardt says both the federal government and the Gates Foundation are committed to repurposing this money and are enthusiastic about seeing it put to work as soon as possible.

Figure1
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

AIDS prevention through such means as safe injection sites, would be a productive use of monies that were scheduled to be used for the construction of a pilot lot manufacturing facility, some researchers say. Image courtesy of © 2010 Jupiterimages Corp.

Much of that enthusiasm stems from the recent success of highly publicized clinical trials in Thailand, he adds. The trial combined two different vaccines — AIDSVAX and a separate vaccine from Sanofi — and showed a 30% protection rate, the most successful HIV vaccine clinical trial to date.

The success of the trials opens up the possibility that some of the available monies could be used to prepare the community for the administering of an HIV vaccine, he adds.

Some monies may also be allocated to international initiatives. To date, about $10 million of the CHVI’s $139-million allocation has been spent, primarily to fund clinical trials, some of which were delivered under the rubric of the Global Health Research Initiative. That will likely continue as PHAC officials indicated that some forthcoming announcements will involve improving clinical trial capacity in Africa.

There are also hopes on the front-lines of the battle against AIDS that some money will be available for community health and prevention efforts.

To that end, those toiling on the front lines are calling for national consultations on reallocation of the $88 million. Monique Doolittle-Romas, executive director of the Canadian AIDS Society, says her organization has already written to the federal government requesting restoration of roughly $22 million taken from AIDS programs when the CHVI was launched.

Engelhardt, though, indicated that’s not in the works. The programs will not be restored, he says.

Still, Doolittle-Romas says it is essential there be a broad consultation on how best to use this money. “Government needs to gather input from the people who work in this field on a daily basis.”

Dr. William Cameron, president of the Canadian Association of HIV Research, says there’s considerable speculation that the government plans to divert some of the $88 million to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a global program that has received significant funding from Canada in the past.

But that would be a mistake, Cameron says, as it would result in less financial support for many Canadian HIV/AIDS programs.

Cameron adds that there are promising areas of research that the scientific community could pursue, particularly in the area of prevention. Avenues could include hard reduction measures such as the promotion of safe sex and safe injection sites, he says, adding that “unfortunately, our government has not been very supportive of measures like that.”

The federal government could also issue a general request for proposals for basic research, Cameron says, arguing that Canada lags behind many developed countries in outlays for vaccine research. “Canada has a tremendous untapped potential in vaccine research and discovery. We’re just not realizing our potential and perhaps this money can help with that.”

Footnotes

  • Published at www.cmaj.ca on May 14

    Second of a series

    Part I: Squabble continues over cancellation of HIV vaccine facility (CMAJ 2010. DOI:10.1503/cmaj.109-3255)

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 182 (9)
CMAJ
Vol. 182, Issue 9
15 Jun 2010
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
What to do with $88 million?
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
What to do with $88 million?
Dan Lett
CMAJ Jun 2010, 182 (9) E415-E416; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3256

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
What to do with $88 million?
Dan Lett
CMAJ Jun 2010, 182 (9) E415-E416; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3256
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
  • Figures & Tables
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Trudeau promises to boost federal health transfers when the pandemic is over
  • Does shaming have a place in public health?
  • Should Canada aim for #CovidZero?
Show more News

Similar Articles

Collections

  • Topics
    • HIV & AIDS
    • Drugs: immunologic

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions

Copyright 2021, Joule Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

Powered by HighWire