The vaccine was developed in Birmingham UK by Dr. Gordon R B Skinner. The approach is based on twenty years experience of similar intracellular vaccines, one of which has been shown to modulate the pattern of herpes genitilis in a multicentre, placebo controlled trial in the USA and has been used prophylactically and therapeutically on a named patient basis for 2 decades in the United Kingdom. The final preparation is a mixture of virus and cell proteins. The process ensures that the vaccine is inactivated and that the final preparation contains the important HIV-1 glycoproteins core proteins, regulatory and intermediate proteins but no infectious HIV or active reverse transcriptase. The vaccine has been tested at three different Centres for protein content, antigenic and immunogenic reactivity, and for toxicity.
Haematological indices are still under test.
The preparation does not contain infectious HIV nor reverse transcriptase enzyme activity. The results suggest, but do not of course prove until human trials are instituted, that the vaccine will be effective. The intracellular technology is covered by Patents in all EEC countries, USA, Canada, Australia and Japan.