"Most promising" HIV vaccine trial stopped; vaccine not effective

In what a colleague at Penn--an HIV researcher--describes as "very big and very disappointing news", Merck announced Friday that it was halting clinical trials on what was viewed as a highly promising HIV vaccine candidate, the most advanced vaccine that employed a new strategy attempting to stimulate T-cell immunity against the virus. An interim analysis of research data found that the vaccine was not effective.

Here's the front page story from Saturday's New York Times -- Failure of Vaccine Test is Setback in AIDS Fight, and more coverage from Scientific American, The Associated Press, and The Washington Post. Here are official statements from Merck, NIH, and IAVI.

Also of note is this editorial in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, "Starting fresh for an HIV vaccine."