US Based Pharmaceutical Firm Moderna To Commence Human Trials Of Its Inventive HIV Vaccine By This Week

Kathleen Kinder
Kathleen Kinder

Updated · Aug 21, 2021

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Biotech firm Moderna, which is based in Massachusetts, United States has already seen extraordinary success with its coronavirus shot last year. The COVID19 shot developed by Moderna has been based on an advanced technology that is known as mRNA technology. Now, the pharmaceutical company is going to develop an experimental vaccine for HIV, which will be based on mRNA technology. The officials from the company have already announced that they will be introducing their new HIV shot based on the same technology earlier this year. Now, the officials of the firm are going to start human trials of their mRNA-based HIV shots this week itself. The company is planning to enroll 56 healthy adults who are not HIV positive to examine the safety, efficacy, and the basic immune reaction of their new HIV shot that is named mRNA-1644. Moderna has been developing this HIV shot in association with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Health officials from Moderna believe that their HIV shot will be as effective as their COVID19 vaccine. Moderna COVID19 shot is one of the two mRNA shots that have been authorized across the world. The CEO of Moderna, Stephane Bancel has said that the challenging last year that has affected all communities around the world has been proved to be amazing proof of concept time for the company. The head of the company has said that the success of their COVID19 shot has encouraged them to venture into more ambitious development initiatives. Moderna has pronounced three new vaccine development initiatives for seasonal flu, Nipah virus, and HIV this year.

The officials from the company have said that traditional vaccines for seasonal flu are not much effective; however, the issue can be addressed with the help of new mRNA technology. Health officials have said that the mRNA-1644 vaccine candidate is going to be the first HIV vaccine, which will be used in human trials. The company officials have informed that Moderna will be testing another edition of HIV vaccine candidate that is known as mRNA-1644v2-core. Both HIV vaccine candidates have already been tested on non-human subjects. Scientists have said that the mRNA-1644 HIV candidate has been designed to trigger B cells of the immune system that can produce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) against HIV. As per the report, some unknown potent bnAbs have been found from large sets of HIV-positive patients in 2019. The isolation of these antibodies has renovated HIV vaccine development, said the experts. Health experts who have been involved in the development of the new HIV vaccine have said that in the lab tests, they have examined how these antibodies interact with HIV and eradicate it. Later, scientists have been able to pinpoint many weak spots of the virus that have been used to develop vaccine immunogens. Experts have informed that the first immunogen of these modified immunogens that is known as eOD-GT8 60mer has been made by the IAVI and other partners. In the phase 1 trial, researchers have examined if this method will prompt the immune system to initiate the production of bnAbs.

A clear understanding of the outermost protein of the HIV that is called Envelope Glycoprotein has encouraged the development of immunogens that can induce the production of bnAbs. Envelope Glycoprotein is the sole target of all bnAbs, said the experts. Scientists have not been able to find out the actual formation of this insanely unstable trimeric protein. However, recent developments have helped them to understand and stabilize it to a certain extent. Although HIV has a social stigma attached to it, it is no longer a death sentence for patients. HIV leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) which is a permanent growing disease that has no sure shot cure in the world. A report released from Moderna has shown that nearly 38 million people across the world are dealing with HIV. Around 1.2 million of them are from the US itself. The report has noted that about two million new infections are reported across the world every year and 690000 people lose their lives due to HIV each year. Unprotected sexual contact and IV drug use are the most common way of HIV transmission; therefore, the young population is at a higher risk of the disease. Health officials have said that HIV accounts for a major economic burden. They have claimed that around a sum of $562.6 billion has been spent on HIV care and prevention around the world from 2000 to 2015. The first-ever vaccine for HIV will be a holy grail in the history of medical science, said the experts. There have been many attempts to develop a vaccine for HIV earlier as well but these efforts have not been able to find an allusion of efficiency and have been found to be unsafe for patients. Now, Moderna is going to explore how to send eOD-GT8 60mer immunogen with an advanced mRNA tool. During the trials, scientists will demonstrate how to use mRNA technology to trigger cells to produce proteins that will generate an immune response against HIV. The virus has mutated into many variants over the years, therefore, the mRNA tool is quite beneficial as it can be easily modified as per the dominant variant at any time. The phase 1 trial of Moderna’s new HIV vaccine candidate will be conducted in association with the University of Texas, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Washington University, and Emory University. The trial is expected to be finished by May 2023, said the experts.

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Kathleen Kinder

Kathleen Kinder

With over four years of experience in the research industry, Kathleen is generally engrossed in market consulting projects, catering primarily to domains such as ICT, Health & Pharma, and packaging. She is highly proficient in managing both B2C and B2B projects, with an emphasis on consumer preference analysis, key executive interviews, etc. When Kathleen isn’t deconstructing market performance trajectories, she can be found hanging out with her pet cat ‘Sniffles’.