London — Johnson & Johnson is preparing to test an experimental HIV vaccine in the US and Europe in a move toward developing the first immunisation against the deadly disease after decades of frustration.
The approach “brings us one step closer to covering the vast diversity of viruses worldwide”, said Dan Barouch, a Harvard Medical School professor whose research laid the groundwork for the vaccine. “For medical and global public health reasons, it’s better to have a vaccine that works in multiple parts of the world.”
The vaccine’s main component is a cold virus that’s been altered to make the proteins that raise immunity, Schuitemaker said. Study participants get six shots in four sessions. “It’s measurably better in animal studies than other vaccines tested thus far,” said Bruce Walker, director of the Ragon Institute, a Harvard- and Massachusetts Institute of Technology-affiliated biomedical research centre focusing on immune approaches to disease.