The U.S. government has given a five-year, $16.7 million contract to the San Diego biotechnology company Epimmune for the development of an HIV vaccine. The company will work with Bavarian Nordic, SRI International, and Althea Technologies to develop a product using HIV protein fragments. AlphaVax, Novavax, and Progenics Pharmaceuticals have secured separate contracts. Each contracted group will use a different approach to HIV immunization.