This means not only is the need for a vaccine great but that clinical trials there can be both smaller and done more quickly precisely because the population being tested is at higher risk and more likely to encounter HIV. The study was led by scientists at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of NIH.
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While we wait to see if these two efficacy trials move forward, researchers have already begun a different kind of efficacy study in North and South America, with a companion study slated to begin soon in East and Southern Africa. Now they’re working on a vaccine.
The initial experimental vaccine tested in Thailand was only 60% effective at preventing HIV one year after vaccination, but decreased to 31.2% after three and half years. With an estimated two million new HIV infections occurring worldwide annually, however, controlling and ultimately ensuring a durable end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic also will likely require a safe and effective vaccine.
NIAID is responsible for all operational aspects of the pivotal Phase 2b/3 trial, which will enroll 5 400 HIV-uninfected men and women aged from 18 to 35 years and who are at risk of HIV infection. Partnering with a sister network, the HIV Prevention Trials Network, it launched a clinical trial on an approach called antibody mediated prevention, or AMP. Results are expected in 2020.
The study‚ called HVTN 702‚ is pending regulatory approval and is being led by South African Dr Glenda Gray‚ who is the president and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council.
“To get the immune system to respond to the vaccine, you have to think about its response to the adapted form of HIV, and focus on those parts of the virus that are most hard to undergo adaptation”, Paul Goepfert, M.D., director of UAB’s Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic, said in a press release.
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The HVTN 702 study is created to determine whether the regimen is safe, tolerable and effective at preventing HIV infection among South African adults. As advocates, we mark the date each year because of the hope research continues to give us for a possibility to end HIV in the world: there are multiple discoveries and new insight about the virus that makes the prospect for a HIV vaccine more feasible with each passing year. Finally, the HVTN 702 vaccine regimen will include booster shots at the one-year mark in an effort to prolong the early protective effect observed in RV144. The participants will receive a total of five injections of the vaccine over one year. The volunteers will be randomly assigned to receive either the investigational vaccine regimen or a placebo.
