Zambia begins first preventive HIV vaccine trial
Targeted Genetics Corporation, the Zambia Emory HIV Research Project (ZEHRP) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) announced the initiation of a clinical trial in Zambia to test the safety and immunogenicity of tgAAC09, a preventive HIV vaccine. This is the first preventive HIV vaccine trial to be conducted in Zambia, and will take place at the Zambia Emory HIV Research Project Center in Lusaka with Dr. Elwyn Chomba acting as the Principal Investigator. It is an early-stage, multi-national trial, also being conducted at three sites in South Africa and Uganda.
The vaccine candidate, tgAAC09, was developed by Targeted Genetics. The vaccine is based on HIV subtype C, the subtype of the virus most prevalent in southern Africa. tgAAC09 is designed as a preventive vaccine, intended to protect people not infected with HIV from contracting the disease. It is designed to elicit two different types of immune responses - an antibody response and a cell-mediated response. tgAAC09 utilizes a recombinant adeno-associated viral vector (AAV) that was developed with and manufactured by Targeted Genetics. Under the terms of a public-private collaboration, IAVI is funding development, pre-clinical and clinical studies to test the vaccine. The early-stage trial follows positive safety data received from the Phase I trial conducted over the past two years in Belgium, Germany, and India where volunteers received a lower-dose range.
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