A British company has stopped making the key ingredient for a potential
HIV vaccine because of its ‘enormous’ production cost.
Celltech, which is based in Slough, confirmed last week that it had
stopped producing a genetically engineered, pure form of HIV’s protein coat,
gp120. The sale price of the protein, $10 000 per milligram, was little
more than it cost to make, said a spokesman.
Celltech had previously supplied the protein on contract to the Medical
Research Council and to the US National Institutes of ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû1000¼¯ºÏ for laboratory
research. The company, which harvested the protein from cultured animal
cells, has no plans to make any more.
