In 2003, $81 million was awarded by NIAID through four new contracts to support development of candidate HIV vaccines. The awards were part of NIAID’s HIV Vaccine Design and Development Teams program, a public-private partnership that seeks to accelerate HIV vaccine development. The contract recipients were AlphaVAx Human Vaccines, Inc. (Durham, NC), Epimmune, Inc. (San Diego, CA), Novavax, Inc. (Columbia , MD), and Progenics Pharmaceuticals (Tarrytown, NY).