Two of the world’s leading HIV experts have suggested we are moving closer to an useable HIV vaccine. There are currently three vaccines undergoing human trials. These vaccines are known as HVTN 702, Imbokodo and Mosaico.
Dr. Susan Buchbinder is director of the Bridge HIV research program at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. She is also chair of both the Imbokodo and Mosaico trials.
She told NBC, “We have three vaccines currently being tested in efficacy trials and it takes quite a bit to actually be promising enough in the earlier stages of trials to move you forward into an efficacy study.”
She called this moment, “perhaps one of the most optimistic moments we have been in.”
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Trials of Imbokodo began in South Africa, where more than 50% of women aged 18-25 are living with HIV, began in 2017.
Mosaico, which is a very similar form of vaccine to Imbokodo, began last month. Both use a ‘mosaic’ of immunogens to provoke an immune response to a variety of different strains of HIV. They require six injections over four separate sessions.
While both are being trialed in South Africa, Mosaico will also be trialed in 3,800 gay men and trans people at 57 sites in the US, Latin America, and Europe.
The other vaccine, HVTN 702, was developed following the failure of an earlier vaccine, RV144. That vaccine was only found to reduce HIV infection by 30%, which is not good enough to be put to widespread use. Since that vaccine’s failure in the late 00s, researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have been modifying it to be more effective.
The new vaccine has been on trial in South Africa since 2016.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, says that even a vaccine that proved to be 50% effective would dramatically reduce infection rates in places such as sub-Saharan Africa. The less number of people in a population that carry the virus, the less chance of it being passed on to others.
Fauci says if used in conjunction with PreP and Treatment as Prevention (getting newly diagnosed people on to medication quickly to make them undetectable), even a partially effective vaccine could prove worth deploying sooner rather than later.
“If one or more of these vaccines look good, have a 50-60 percent efficacy, I think that’s going to be the game-changer for turning the epidemic around.”
The results of the HVTN 702 could arrive late next year.
Related: Scientists identify first new strain of HIV in nearly two decades
When vaccines or new medications are trialed, the trial can be stopped early, That happens if the product being tested shows overwhelming evidence that it works, or if it shows no evidence of working or even causes harm. As yet, none of the trials have yet been stopped. This suggests the vaccines are having an effect but none are an unqualified success.
However, Fauci believes that even a partially effective vaccine, when used in conjunction with other methods, may tip the tide against HIV.
In the US, President Donald Trump pledged earlier this year to reduce the incidence of HIV domestically by 75% in 5 years, and by 90% by 2030.
In addition to PrEP, treatment as prevention, and the vaccine trials, NIAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced in October plans to each invest at least $100 million over the next four years toward developing an affordable, gene-based cure for HIV.
Matthew Hodson, chief executive of HIV information service NAM, told Queerty: “This is an exciting time in vaccine development. It’s not expected that any of these vaccines will offer 100% protection but if they can offer 50% protection or more, that would be useful for communities with high rates of HIV.
“We’ve seen that a combination approach to prevention, including condoms, PrEP and getting people tested and virally suppressed (aka ‘undetectable’) on treatment, drives down new infections. Adding another powerful tool to our prevention kit could make a big difference.”
thisisnotreal
Hate to be that person but I’m reminded of the old saying “there’s more money to be made in treating a disease, than curing it” I imagine if that vaccine actually works there would be a lot of pharmaceutical companies out there that would be willing to do some really shady things to make sure it never goes into mass production. So call me a pessimist but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Den
Generally that phrase is most circulated among those who don’t understand biology, medicine, epidemiology or history. And it is most often used in reference to cancer: which is not one disease but many, each having a different cause and treatment protocol.
And the article is about a vaccine, not a cure. Most viral diseases can ONLY be treated symptomatically and not cured in the same way bacterial or parasitic diseases often (but not always) can.
Trekbike
Normally I would agree with you. But, with HIV being an epidemic, and the billions of dollars government is paying to fight it, I believe the world health organization and government won’t allow the pharmaceutical companies to bury the drugs. They also won’t allow the drugs to cost an astronomical amount either. There’s absolutely no incentive for any government to allow pharmaceutical companies to bury the drug at the great expense of government.
OLSinFLA
There’s no more cutthroat industry than the pharma. If someone discovers a cure they have two choices – they can patent it (and everyone knows its there) or they can hope no one else discovers it and hide it. In the first case, you’ve just made every other drug companies HIV meds worthless, and you’re going to make billions (and its all yours for the length of the patent). In the second scenario, you run the risk of someone else discovering it, thereby making YOUR HIV drugs worthless and lose millions. Thats why the “they will stop it” scenario never works.
Heywood Jablowme
Plus there’s the little detail that this wouldn’t be a CURE, it would be a vaccine. Not the same thing!
maleficent
you are so smart
Chris
Of course it’s not the same thing, however we can point to SEVERAL diseases from our past that weren’t cured, but nearly eradicated from a vaccine: polio, TB, etc. Don’t be so negative. This is the best news since PrEP. (Queue the nay-sayers and Debbie Downers…)
o.codone
I have always believed it was the hep B trials in the late 70’s that introduced HIV into gay men in the US. Epidemiologically the argument makes sense. That vaccine was grown in monkey lung tissue and the SIV (the Simian virus) was in the lung tissue. Koprowski at the Wistar Institute illegally used the lung tissue and lied about it. So, that said, it’s time for gay men to stop being guinea pigs for big pharma. Who know what disasters lie ahead for us if we keep being experimental animals for these companies. I know a lot of people don’t believe the hep B theory but lets try to leave that issue alone for now. I don’t want to start a big fight and go off topic. Thanks.