Potential HIV vaccine falls short in study, J&J says
Researchers to continue separate, late-stage trial
A potential HIV vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson did not provide protection against the virus in a mid-stage study, the drugmaker said Tuesday.
J&J plans to end that study, which involved young women in sub-saharan Africa. But researchers will continue a separate, late-stage trial involving a different composition of the vaccine in men and transgender people.
The study in sub-saharan Africa involved about 2,600 women who were deemed to be at high risk of acquiring HIV, which causes AIDS. Participants were randomly selected, and researchers found that the vaccine was only 25% effective at preventing HIV.
“HIV is a unique and complex virus that has long posed unprecedented challenges for vaccine development because of its ability to attack, hijack and evade the human immune system,” J&J Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Paul Stoffels said in a statement.
Study participants will be notified of the results, unblinded and informed whether they were in the study group that received the vaccine or the group that received placebo.
J&J said its other study of the potential vaccine is being conducted in Europe and the Americas, where different strains of HIV are circulating.
J&J also makes one of the three vaccines approved by U.S. regulators for the prevention of COVID-19 and is developing vaccines for sepsis and respiratory syncytial virus.