HIV Vaccine Trial Utilizes Moderna’s mRNA Technology Used in COVID Shot
On January 27, 2022, Moderna announced that the first experimental HIV vaccine was administered at a clinical trial at George Washington University. The scientific research organization named IAVI, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Moderna partnered together to make this happen.
Back in 2016 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made an agreement with Moderna that would grant up to $20 million dollars to Moderna for work on advancing mRNA technology to aid in prevention of infectious diseases. The president of global health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Trevor Mundel stated, “Moderna Therapeutics’ research has considerable potential for the development of an effective prevention intervention for HIV, and potentially other infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest people”.
Fast forward to 2020 when the COVID pandemic started and Moderna used their mRNA technology to make a COVID vaccine. Now in 2022, that same mRNA technology is being used for an experimental vaccine for HIV. President of Moderna Dr. Stephen Hodge states “At Moderna, we believe that mRNA offers a unique opportunity to address critical unmet public health needs around the world. We believe advancing this HIV vaccine program…is an important step in our mission to deliver on the potential for mRNA to improve human health”.
The clinical trial will test a primary version of the vaccine and a booster version. There will be four sites where the clinical trial takes place which are located around the country. Fifty- six healthy and HIV negative patients will volunteer to participate. Sixteen of the participants will receive one dose of the vaccine. Thirty- two of the participants will receive the vaccine and a booster. Eight of the participants will receive only the booster. The participants will be closely monitored for six months after their last vaccination. Their immune responses to the vaccine will be studied to evaluate if the vaccine was successful.
The first vaccine was administered on January 27th at George Washington Hospital where Dr. David Diemert is the lead investigator for the clinical trial. He said, “We at GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences are pleased to be part of this endeavor…this could be the first key element of an eventual HIV immunization regimen”.
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