Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Last week, Moderna announced that the first participants in the first phase of clinical trials had received the experimental “AIDS” vaccine, which uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
These tests bear the name “IAVI G002”, and are conducted in partnership with the scientific research organization “IAVI”. The goal is to test a vaccine that gives AIDS antigens to the body, in order to stimulate an immune response.
These antigens were primarily developed by researchers at IAVI and Scripps Research, under the direction of Dr. William Schiff.
In a “proof-of-concept” test conducted last year, the research team discovered that HIV antigens produced the immune response in 97% of the participants. The current test builds on previous experience, by examining the initial version of the vaccine and a booster version of it, with the adoption of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology developed by Moderna in order to produce a successful vaccine against “Covid-19”.
“We are very excited to move forward with this new direction of HIV vaccine design via the mRNA platform that Moderna has developed,” Mark Feinberg, IAVI President and CEO, said in Moderna’s press release. AIDS is long and difficult, and the use of new tools in terms of immunogens or platforms may be the key to making rapid progress towards the production of an effective AIDS vaccine, which is badly needed.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding part of this new trial, involving 56 adults without HIV, to study the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Forty-eight volunteers will receive a minimum of one dose of the initial vaccine, and 32 of them will also receive a booster. The other eight study participants will receive only the booster dose.
The trial includes participants from four locations: the George Washington University School of Medicine, the Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.