Disappointing news in the neverending search for a vaccine against HIV. Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson announced yesterday that it was pulling the plug early on its latest trial after it became clear it wasn’t proving effective.
Janssen (J&J’s research arm) partnered with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
A spokesperson for NIAID said, “It’s not the outcome we had hoped for, unfortunately. The development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine has been a considerable scientific challenge, but we will learn from this study and continue forward.”
J&J used similar technology to its Covid-19 shot. As part of the Mosaico Study, 3,900 gay men and transgender people received the HIV vaccine or a placebo. All participants had previously declined to take PrEP. The study was due to end in early 2024.
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Mitchell Warren, director of the prevention advocacy organization AVAC, commented: “We always hope that efficacy trials will show positive results that lead to new prevention options… [but] the hard truth is the science of HIV vaccine development is extremely challenging.”
Related: Here’s why COVID-19 has a vaccine after 1 year and HIV doesn’t after nearly 40 years
The challenges of producing a HIV vaccine
HIV mutates rapidly and is skilled at evading the body’s immune system. As a retrovirus, it can hide in the very DNA of our cells. This makes it impossible for our own immune system to locate the virus.
For this reason, attempts to produce a vaccine have so far failed. Although this latest formulation showed some efficiency in earlier trials, that effectiveness was clearly not good enough for experts to consider releasing it to the market.
Fortunately, PrEP is highly effective at preventing HIV infection. Experts believe that long-lasting injectable or implantable PrEP might prove a more realistic aid in ending HIV transmission.
Related: FDA gives approval for human trial of potential HIV cure
Dr. Penny Heaton of Janssen said of the latest trial failure, “We are disappointed with this outcome and stand in solidarity with the people and communities vulnerable to and affected by HIV.
“Though there have been significant advances in prevention since the beginning of the global epidemic, 1.5 million people acquired HIV in 2021 alone, underscoring the high unmet need for new options and why we have long worked to tackle this global health challenge. We remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing innovation in HIV, and we hope the data from Mosaico will provide insights for future efforts to develop a safe and effective vaccine.”
Chrisk
The vaccine has been the dream since forever. I too thought the covid technology would make it possible.
Oh well. There’s always PrEP. That and use those funds for the other research. Gene editing, Crispr, modifying CD4 cells, etc.
NexPat
it is important to note that this was developed using the Jannseen (J&J) “covid technology” and NOT mRNA technology
Bromancer7
Call me cynical, but there is far more money to be made in treating a disease than there is preventing or curing it. This outcome is not surprising.
still_onthemark
And yet somebody came up with a CURE for Hep C, go figure.
Bromancer7
Because there isn’t a vaccine and they have to make money somehow. DUH.
still_onthemark
You probably mean well, and that notion may seem intuitive to you personally, but that’s absurd. The drug companies may be evil, but they are certainly competitive! They would have no incentive to create a vast conspiracy to prevent an HIV cure from happening. Who does come up with a cure would make a lot of money on it. A cure could come from a start-up – or even a foreign government – that would have no reason to prop up sales of Biktarvy and Descovy.
Bromancer7
It’s cute how naive you are.
still_onthemark
For example, Truvada’s European patent expired a few years ago. Truvada’s owner Gilead fought in the courts to prevent Truvada generics (emtricitabine/tenofovir) from being sold. But they had no legal leg to stand on. Four other pharma companies fought them and won, and they’re now making money selling the generics.
If someone comes up with a cure for the common cold, I suppose you think the makers of Nyquil and Vicks Vap-o-Rub would conspire to crush the cure? AND they’d get away with it?
Bromancer7
Riiiight, and the generics are only marginally cheaper than the name brand. Gilead just messed around with the ingredient combo of Truvada and PRESTO, they now have Descovy under patent, which they heavily market as being safer than Truvada. This is done all the time. Drug makers make a small change to a drug that’s about to go off-patent and then turn it into a “new” drug.
He’s a general outline of how it works: big pharmaceuticals keep their eyes out for anything on the horizon that might be detrimental to their bottom line. They then buy it and bury it. Tech companies do the exact same thing, and have been for decades. None of this is new.
KetynPorta
Other failure of the Biden admin so. “Long ago all the big bands used to play, Caravan, Paper Moon, Midnight at the starlight: Haunted ballroom” In this case, the press used to talk about deficit, innovation and social development news, now everything is lies like Cole Porter “anything goes”, and instead of playing “Haunted Ballroom” they talk about Hunter Biden. So, “One more song maestro please, one more Waltz before we leave” as Judy Roberts would sing or like Mel Torme singing “the goodbye look” Read the book, and you know what Gretchen happens with a Cuban breeze to Americans… The text says that Americans are so stupid, according to L.Summers, that they don’t know their history and therefore repeat it again. Part of that history is contained in jazz standards and in a certain song “Compared to what? (1969)” describes how presidents use wars as media power “The President, he’s got his war, Folks don’t know just what it’s for, Nobody gives us rhyme or reason, Have one doubt, they call it treason, We’re chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God damn it!” This is so peculiar how the Democrats defend guns when it comes to Ukraine, but they are cynical if they will talk about their country. And on the other hand, the Republicans who love guns and capitalism, in the words of a “Hillibilly” reporter, Tucker Carlson is against Zelensky wars and adores Putin’s socialism because of course everything Biden has done is wrong, because it was what they the republicans wanted to do: lies, destroy and win based on slander, understatement and duplicity supported by a free media that really isn’t free. Republicans love creating hate and in the future democrats use that hate to create a war, the next biggest threat for the World is China, so let’s go, in the past was Rusia. Everyone knows that in the United States there are no left-wing parties, there is a radical or conservative right called the Republicans and a fake left that is really the central right called Democrats. Then, woke people who are naive or shocked with mental problems that the liberal and conservative media try to bombard with propaganda to the more free/pure [sic] communists style. Therefore, the most corrupt media are currently the liberal likes: the young turks, cnn, nyt, politico, etc. The only more decent media are the homophobic Russians (not so much) because a certain thing about the gas stove is related to the fact that Russia will stop selling gas in February, therefore the Democrats are brainwashing their people so that they do not consume and they can sell it to the Europeans. So everyone knows that Biden, like Trump, is disgusting but they have the support of their orchestras. And the Democrats are much more corrupt and smarter than the Republicans. They know how to use understatement and distortion of reality to make a thing of crimen look like a carelessness like the Biden papers, or how only Democrats can change because all of Biden’s lies are less than R. Santos, or Democrats like AOC can be fake. They can cry for immigrant children when Republicans are in power but that’s children when Democrats are in the presidency become slaves without rights. It is a fortuitous act to see that the media have publicity about migrating to the United States when the gringos are so anti-immigrant, they call them aliens but those congressmen are the same ones who think that racism never existed in their country. But “Lush life” by Billy Stornhorn, a marginalized black gay man, he is right, is a new year and “life is awful again” Everything is the same. Biden is disgusting like all the politicians in the world. Followed by Macron or the dictatorship of Israel or England (dictatorships supported by the United States due to the lack of clarity of the elections) or Antonio Sánchez and speaking of Spain and its influence to overthrow or meddle in LATAM, Europeans are the most corrupt people, many Spanish millionaires They own the food, medicine and transportation industries in Colombia or Latin America without paying any taxes and they overthrow governments as they did in Peru with the support of Democrats who do not see corruption in what Nancy Pelosi did but in what relatives of President Castillo did. But sorry if You get “salpique” Europe is the continent that taught and continues with white supremacy, this continent categorizes immigrants as slaves without rights and you are only allowed to enter if you have money, Qatar is another good example of how Europe taught the United States how to do corruption an unpunished value, the united states does not have uyghurs in its government refused to participate in China, the united states has people from the “LG-TV” [sic] community in its government but participated in Qatar knowing that gays were arrested or that acts of corruption were covered up . And Europe has always covered everything they do in order to promulgate European values that are Napoleonic values or Hitlerian values or Semitic values that are all the same, for the end, because they all believe they are the select people, of the Hebrew people. And to end “Gone with the Wind” when the southerners fought with the Yankees, today it is the Republicans with the Democrats and tomorrow the idiots with the others imbecil. So all humans are equal but they seek to discriminate, for example: Terf hates trans but Messi takes hormones no Terf was scandalized. Flapper was the style before feminism existed. Or how dems try to make latin people look like racist when they forgot Cubans are afros or some friend of Malcomx was Fidel. Although the transvestites are just as clownish as the politicians and reporters, but drag(ons) are much funnier, so LMD5 is far superior to RPDR, which “q fuerte verdaderamente y Paper la + y czb”. And speaking of Latin America, they have potential but unfortunately they have populations just as stupid as the rest of the world, right-wing Mexicans support Biden but hate their left-wing president, showing how “pendejos” Mexicans are since they should support their president more than an idiot from another country. In the case of Brazil, Bolsanoro should be in jail but the United States does not have left-wing parties, only losers as Bernie Sander knows how to support corrupt people who destroy their countries of origin and create profit for the United States, that is why they do nothing in against the corrupt Bolsonaro or Guillermo Lasso or Lenin in Ecuador, or any right-wing president who is corrupt but produces oil profits in favor of the United States. And at the end that’s life another standard jazz. Thank you
Vince
Oh fu*k off with your copy and paste BS.
TommyIL
I have no idea what any of that is supposed to mean
storm45701
Girl, take some Valium.
TommyIL
So if you decide a vaccine trial should be stopped because it’s ineffective, doesn’t that mean several study participants must have been infected with HIV during the study? How else did they determine it wasn’t working?
bachy
I assume the study participants were HIV-negative people who did not want to take PreP or other precautions (ie, condoms).