Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the establishment of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative -- a multimillion-dollar plan to combat the virus that causes AIDS.
"This collaboration between Canada's new government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is going to contribute to the global effort to develop safe, effective, affordable and globally-accessible HIV vaccines," said Harper on Tuesday.
He said the benefits from the joint partnership will be numerous.
"(It) will allow us to accelerate the pace towards the discovery of an HIV vaccine, construct a facility to manufacture promising vaccines for clinical trials, move vaccines to the clinical trial stage more quickly, (and) improve access to an eventual vaccine."
He also said the initiative will help coordinate the activities of Canadian and international researchers so that information can be shared effectively.
Ottawa will pledge $111 million for the AIDS program, while the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will offer $28 million.
"The long-term solution is a vaccine and I think that scientists are in strong agreement that this will be one of the toughest vaccines ever to create and yet it needs to be, therefore, a priority," said Gates.
He said most scientists think that it will take 10 years to find a vaccine.
It's not yet clear what city will host the new facility. The office of Health
Minister Tony Clement said the government will accept proposals from the provinces.
Harper endured harsh criticism last summer when he decided not to attend the International AIDS Conference in Toronto.
When asked if he was concerned about being part of a political strategy by the Conservatives to regain favour, Gates said the initiative was still a great thing for the AIDS cause.
"I'm glad to hear that putting research money into AIDS makes people politically more popular," he said, prompting laughter from the audience.
In an interview later on CTV's Mike Duffy Live, Harper said the government had been negotiating for some time with the Gates Foundation, but this was the first time he got to meet the world's richest man.
Harper said his wife, Laureen, considers Gates "the world's sexiest man."
"When she first said that to me, I said really, is that true? I think he's the richest but I never thought of him that way. Laureen said to me, 'when a man has that much money, he's sexy,'" Harper told Duffy.
Tuesday's announcement was applauded by the World Health Organization, the pharmaceutical industry, academics, and the International Aids Vaccine Initiative.
*CTVNews
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