On Sept. 29, 2003, $81 million was awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) through four contracts to support development of candidate HIV vaccines. The awards were part of NIAID’s HIV Vaccine Design and Development Teams program, a public-private partnership that sought to accelerate HIV vaccine development.

Each team is pursuing a unique vaccine strategy, and these strategies include DNA vaccines, virus vector vaccines, subunit vaccines and virus-like particle vaccines. None of the vaccines contain the genetic information to make a complete virus, and therefore they pose no threat of HIV infection to potential study participants.

These vaccine development contracts are part of NIAID’s expanded commitment to develop an HIV vaccine, and they complement other NIAID-supported HIV vaccine research and development activities.