The purpose of this paper is to review legal, ethical, and human rights challenges in HIV vaccine research, and to identify actions that need to occur in order to overcome these challenges.
The paper specifically addresses challenges arising in the context of HIV preventive vaccine research in developing countries. It does not aim to address clinical research in developing countries relating to treatments or therapeutic vaccines. Nor does it address legal and ethical issues relating to HIV vaccine research in industrialized countries, although similar issues arise in both contexts.