$20 million soap opera continues

WASHINGTON - AIDS vaccine companies considering participation in an NIH-sponsored multi-vaccine trial were caught by surprise by the news that the hotly contested funds for the study had been returned to the Army for a trial of MicroGeneSys Inc.'s VaxSyn gp160 vaccine.

Although MicroGeneSys did not divulge the trial until last week, the Army notified the company two months ago that responsibility would revert from the NIH to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said MicroGeneSys Chairman Franklin Volvovitz...