J&J’s HIV vaccine fails last time in the field

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The Johnson & Johnson logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, USA, on May 29, 2019. REUTERS / Brendan McDermid

August 31 (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson’s experimental vaccine (JNJ.N) failed to provide enough protection against HIV to young women in sub-Saharan Africa, in the latest setback in the field after a series of previous failures.

The mid-stage study called Imbokodo, which tested the experimental J&J vaccine, included 2,600 participating women in five South African countries, where women and girls accounted for more than 60% of new HIV infections. last year.

J&J said he continued to study the safety and effectiveness of a different experimental HIV vaccine between men who have sex with men and transgender people. This trial, held in the Americas and Europe, is expected to end in March 2024.

Despite the discovery of effective treatments that can put the virus in remission, experts say an HIV vaccine is key to eradicating the virus that causes AIDS, which caused 680,000 deaths last year.

The Imbokodo study showed a vaccine efficacy of 25.2%, according to which the drug manufacturer said the study will not continue.

“While this is certainly not the result of the study we had hoped for, we need to apply the knowledge learned from the Imbokodo trial,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Disease. Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the US.

The Imbokodo vaccine trial, which uses the same adenovirus platform that was used in J&J’s COVID-19 trait, was supported by NIAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“This is by no means the end of the search for an HIV vaccine,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an advocacy group for HIV prevention, said in a statement with the group calling for a comprehensive global strategy for developing HIV vaccines.

Another study in Africa is testing two different combinations of HIV vaccines, while the Modern Inc mRNA vaccine (MRNA.O) is to be tested in humans this year.

Reports from Manas Mishra to Bengaluru; Edited by Shailesh Kuber and Shinjini Ganguli

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