Vienna-based Cel-Sci Corp.’s vaccine is for an HIV subtype found primarily in South Africa. "It’s really decimating the country," says Geert Kersten, Cel-Sci’s CEO. So far, the South African government has shown no interest in testing the vaccine. "We’ve got the scientific go-ahead. The main problem with AIDS is politics," Kersten says. "If something were to go wrong with a vaccine, the media would tear apart the politician who OK’d it. The safest thing is to do nothing."

Cel-Sci isn’t giving up. It has offered the vaccine, which it’s been working on since the late ’80s, to the country for free. So far, South Africa hasn’t responded. Until the government relents, little can be done by way of testing the vaccine or saving lives. "We’ve been contacted by a lot of other countries, but the infrastructure doesn’t exist" to do a proper study in those countries, Kersten says.

Not to be deterred, the company is turning its sights on another deadly illness — one that’s not geographically discriminant — cancer. Specifically, head and neck, breast and prostate cancers. "We’re trying to eliminate surgery," Kersten says. "In the past two years, we have treated well over 100 cancer patients with positive results."

Eliminating surgery would do more than just save the lives of head and neck cancer patients, who account for about 6 percent of all cancer sufferers. It could give them back a normal life. "You don’t tend to see these people once half of their face is cut off," Kersten says. "They don’t want to go outside."