POLITICS: Canada scraps pilot HIV vaccine facility

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Gov't decision to scrap HIV facility draws criticism

Date: Wednesday Feb. 24, 2010 10:03 AM ET

A decision by the federal government to scrap plans with the Gates Foundation to

build an $88-million HIV vaccine pilot manufacturing facility is drawing fire

from scientists and the political opposition.

The facility would have been the main project in the $111-million Canadian HIV

Vaccine Initiative, a venture between Canada and the Gates Foundation, which was

announced three years ago.

Scientists are wondering what is taking so long, and some suspect partisan

politics is the answer.

Bill Cameron, president of the Canadian Association for HIV Research, said

researchers are frustrated.

" What have we accomplished? " he asked of the government's initiative in the

Globe and Mail. " We delayed so long and we haven't got anything. "

In making the decision, the government says there are already enough similar

facilities producing experimental vaccines.

" As part of the due diligence process, a study commissioned by the Gates

Foundation to analyse current vaccine manufacturing capacity concluded that

there is currently sufficient vaccine manufacturing capacity in North America

and Europe to meet research needs, " a news release on a government website said.

Additionally, the government said no not-for profit corporations met the

pre-established criteria for a facility. Corporations and universities in

Winnipeg, borough, ON., London, ON., and Quebec City had competed for the

project.

Officials in Winnipeg have said that they were informally told they had won the

bid.

The Liberals have called for an independent investigation into the matter.

" This entire process has been highly suspicious, " Liberal health critic Carolyn

said in a press release. " Here we have a government cancelling, and then

un-cancelling, and then re-cancelling an $88-million project, with no valid

explanation as to why. The government's behaviour cries out for an investigation

by Canada's Auditor General or at Parliamentary committees. "

Terry Duguid, former head of Winnipeg's International Centre for Infectious

Diseases, says partisan politics may have been at play.

" This is absolutely a bogus excuse, " he said in the Globe and Mail. " I think

there is a heavy dose of politics, both local and national, "

Duguid is a Liberal candidate running in Winnipeg.

The federal government says it will continue to work with the Gates Foundation

and said it remains committed to previously announced funding – up to $111

million over five years for HIV prevention.

However, the government's news release does not mention any specific future

projects and says further details have yet to be defined.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100224/hiv_scrapped_100224\

/20100224?hub=QPeriod