ImmunoVaccine Technologies, a Canadian vaccine development company, announced a research partnership with FIT Biotech, a Finland-based clinical-stage company that develops DNA vaccines. This research will formulate FIT Biotech's GTU MultiHIV DNA plasmid with IVT's DepoVax vaccine delivery system to advance a therapeutic HIV vaccine.

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"DepoVax will act as a vector to deliver FIT Biotech's GTU MultiHIV DNA vaccine, and our goal is to develop a more sophisticated and efficient HIV vaccine candidate," said Marc Mansour, vice president of research and development at IVT.

"By testing DepoVax in combination with GTU MultiHIV plasmid, we are working toward developing a superior vaccine candidate for therapeutic use against HIV and AIDS," said Kalevi Reijonen, president and CEO at FIT Biotech.

The World Health Organization reports that 33 million people are living with HIV and the epidemic is expanding rapidly with 2.7 million people newly infected in 2007. Nearly all of them will develop AIDS-related complications, creating an urgent need for effective HIV therapeutic vaccines. Therapeutic vaccination offers the most hope for HIV-infected individuals because it maintains a low viral load and has the potential to modify the course of the infection and its progression toward AIDS.