The experimental evidence suggests that a particularly good way of activating the cell-killing arm of the immune system is to use two vaccines based on different antigens. One primes the response and the other boosts it—hence the technique's name. In the case of RV144 the boosting vaccine, AIDSVAX, had been the subject of a previous trial in Thailand, and also of one in North America and Europe. Those two trials, intended to raise a traditional antibody-based response, were regarded at the time as the best hope for an effective vaccine. They were a bitter disappointment. When they reported in 2003 they showed no benefit whatsoever. They did, however, show that AIDSVAX was safe, and although it was abandoned by its commercial backers at the time, it was picked up by a Californian charity called Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases.

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