Phase II Trial for HIV Vaccine Candidate Targeting Subtype C Underway, Official Says

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative is conducting Phase II clinical trials to test the vaccine candidate tgAAC09 -- which targets HIV subtype C -- which began in the fourth quarter of 2006 and are ongoing, IAVI Senior National Program Officer Emmanuel Mugisha said on Thursday in Kampala, Uganda, the Monitor/AllAfrica.com reports (Atuhaire, Monitor/AllAfrica.com, 10/10). The 18-month trial -- which involves 91 patients and will test the safety and efficacy of tgAAC09, created by Seattle-based Targeted Genetics -- is taking place at three sites in South Africa, one site in Uganda and another in Zambia. The vaccine -- which cannot cause HIV infection -- aims to elicit two different types of immune responses, an antibody response and a cell-mediated response, to fight off HIV. The vaccine already has been tested in Phase I trials in Belgium, Germany and India. HIV subtype C is a common strain found among people living in southern and eastern Africa (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/10). In related news, the Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration has enrolled 50 infants born to HIV-positive women who attended the Mulago Antenatal care clinic into a perinatal HIV vaccine trial, the Monitor/AllAfrica.com reports (Monitor/AllAfrica.com, 10/10).