Human Tests of AIDS Vaccines OKd

The National Institutes of Health announced Monday it will permit tests in humans of two potential vaccines for AIDS developed by Genentech Inc. and Biocine, a joint venture of Ciba-Geigy AG and Chiron Corp.

The two genetically engineered vaccines will be tested on volunteers to determine how well it reacts in a wide range of uninfected individuals.

Tests will be conducted at AIDS vaccine centers in Seattle, Baltimore, St. Louis, Nashville, Tenn., and Rochester, N.Y.

The vaccines use two different genetically engineered products based on gp120, made from a fragment of two of the most common strains of the AIDS virus circulating in the United States.

Because they are produced from a particle of the virus and are not made from live HIV or an infected human cell, neither candidate virus can cause AIDS infection in any volunteer.