Tutu backs bid for AIDS facility
Desmond Tutu, one of the world's leading proponents of HIV research and caring for AIDS patients, has endorsed London's bid to be the home for a $90-million AIDS vaccine manufacturing facility.
In an interview with The Free Press, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former archbishop of South Africa noted there are four contenders for the plant and said, "My vote would go to St. Joseph's."
The facility will be paid for by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the federal government.
London's hospitals and the University of Western Ontario submitted a bid for the facility in March. The other contenders are Winnipeg, Peterborough and Laval, Que.
Ted Hewitt, UWO's vice-president of research, said Tutu's backing is a significant boost for London's bid.
"Any endorsement like this, especially from a world leader like Archbishop Tutu, is phenomenal. It will have an impact," he said.
Tutu has been in London this week as part of St. Joseph's fundraising speaker series.
Hewitt said Tutu is intimately knowledgeable about issues surrounding AIDS in Africa.
"For him, who understands the importance of a facility like this, to endorse London's bid to create the world's only not-for-profit AIDS vaccine manufacturing facility for trial lots, it is just amazing. I am incredibly impressed and thankful," he said.
The bids from the four contenders will be reviewed by an international panel of experts who will weigh the scientific evidence and make a recommendation to the Gates Foundation and federal government, Hewitt said.
"We will just have to keep our fingers crossed and see what happens," he said.
An AIDS vaccine developed by Dr. Chil-Yong Kang at Western is moving into the first phase of human trials in the U.S.
The first black Anglican archbishop in South Africa, Tutu became famous for his stand against apartheid. He headed the country's truth and reconciliation commission and has been an international advocate for AIDS patients.
Yesterday, he said part of the reason he agreed to speak in London was St. Joseph's compassionate record of treating AIDS patients.
"In the 1990s, they were pioneers, really, in the treatment of people with HIV and AIDS at a time when they were being ostracized and stigmatized. This institution has had a history of caring for those who are marginalized, who are on the edges of our society," he said.
