J&J experimental HIV vaccine candidate fails in advanced trials

USA – Johnson & Johnson has announced that it was discontinuing a late-stage global trial of an HIV vaccine after it was discovered to be ineffective at preventing infections.

The failure of the trial is yet another setback in the search for a vaccine against a virus that is known to mutate quickly and find novel ways to evade the immune system. The setback comes more than a year after another of J&J’s HIV vaccines failed a study in a population of young women in SubSaharan Africa. According to J&J’s partner, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), the shot was only tested on people who refused pre-exposure prophylaxis – treatment to prevent infections.

The experimental vaccine regimen was based on “mosaic” immunogens— vaccine components featuring elements of multiple HIV subtypes—with the goal of inducing immune responses against a wide variety of global HIV strains. The results were ‘disappointing,’ according to