€227m for Aids research

THE Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is awarding $287 million (€227m) in grants over five years to create an international network of scientists to speed up the development of an Aids vaccine.

The collaboration is critical to making HIV vaccine development more efficient, said Dr Nicholas Hellmann, acting director of the Gates Foundation’s HIV, TB and reproductive health programme in Seattle.

Dr Hellmann acknowledged that an effective vaccine may still be 10 years away.