The nonprofit scientific research organization, IAVI, and Modern have announced this Thursday that they have launched a phase I trial to administer the first doses of experimental antigen vaccines against HIV using mRNA technology.
The study is carried out in four US centers; centers will enroll 56 healthy, HIV-free adult volunteers. Of these, 48 participants will receive one or two doses of mRNA-1644 and 32 of them will receive the booster mRNA-1644v2-Core. Another eight volunteers will receive only the booster immunogen.
The immune responses of the participants to the candidate vaccines will be examined in molecular detail to assess whether the desired responses were achieved. In addition, the safety of the participants will be monitored for six months after the last vaccination.
“We are excited to partner with IAVI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to apply our mRNA technology to the field of HIV. At Moderna, we believe that mRNA offers a unique opportunity to address critical unmet public health needs around the world.” world,” said Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna.
“We believe advancing this HIV vaccine program in partnership with IAVI and Scripps Research is an important step in our mission to harness the potential of mRNA to improve human health.”
For his part, the president and CEO of IAVI, Mark Feinberg, has stated that they are “tremendously excited to advance in this new direction in the design of HIV vaccines with the Moderna mRNA platform”. “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 towards an urgently needed effective HIV vaccine,” he added.
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