SEEK announces clinical proof of efficacy in HIV vaccine Phase Ib/II human trial
90% reduction in HIV viral load demonstrated compared with normal disease progression
SEEK, a privately owned biopharmaceutical company specializing in immunology, announced that it has completed a Phase Ib/II clinical trial of its HIV-v vaccine which demonstrates a one log (approx 90 percent) difference in viral count in HIV-infected people compared with the placebo group, after just a single vaccine injection.
Gregory Stoloff, CEO of SEEK, commented: “This is the first time ever that an HIV vaccine has shown such a meaningful result in a human clinical trial. The next step will be to progress this to final human trials and determine the optimum dose and dosing regime to further enhance the vaccine’s efficacy.”
The development of an effective vaccine against HIV has been extremely difficult because the HIV virus constantly mutates. However, SEEK’s HIV-v vaccine targets only the conserved regions in the internal proteins of the HIV virus which remain constant across all HIV strains. It is the first vaccine to generate both strong T-cell and antibody responses to eliminate HIV-infected cells and thus neutralise the HIV virus. These unique features mean that the vaccine, while initially tested in an early stage of the disease as a therapeutic, could also be effective as a prophylactic, pending confirmation in a future trial.
Commenting on the results, Marta Boffito, MD, PhD, from the St. Stephen’s Aids Trust and the principal investigator in the trial, said: “These are remarkable results which demonstrate HIV-v’s safety and immunogenicity and, for the first time, a clinically relevant result, as seen in the one log reduction in viral titres. HIV has long reached pandemic status and, despite growing numbers on anti-retrovirals, we are in desperate need of both a prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine. This HIV-v vaccine definitely warrants further investigation in both these areas."
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