Just over a year ago, we shared an article about how Moderna is using mRNA technology to develop an HIV vaccine. Last week, the Phase I clinical trials for this very vaccine began.
The company is conducting the trial in partnership with the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and hopes that the trial will confirm whether the vaccine can deliver HIV-specific antigens to the body to induce an immune response.
The 56 HIV-negative adult volunteers will be under the watchful eye of the researchers for six months. During the study, 48 of the participants will receive at least one dose of the primary vaccine, and 32 out of these 48 will also receive the booster. The remaining eight will receive only the booster vaccine.
“We are tremendously excited to be advancing this new direction in HIV vaccine design with Moderna’s mRNA platform,” said the president and CEO of IAVI Mark Feinberg in a statement. “The search for an HIV vaccine has been long and challenging and having new tools in terms of immunogens and platforms could be the key to making rapid progress toward an urgently needed, effective HIV vaccine.”
