Only HIV vaccine in advanced trials fails

Janssen Pharmaceuticals ended a global trial after independent experts determined the vaccine was not effective.

But there are other possibilities in the pipeline, scientists said, according to The New York Times.

The only vaccine against HIV still being tested in late-stage clinical trials has proved ineffective, its manufacturer announced another disappointment in a field long beset by failure.

Dozens of HIV vaccine candidates have been tested and discarded over the past few decades. The latest defeat sets progress toward a vaccine back by three to five years, experts said. Still, other options in early-stage trials may yet turn out to provide a powerful bulwark against HIV

The news is “disappointing, but it isn’t the end of the effort toward developing a vaccine,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases until December, said in an interview. “There are other strategic approaches.”

An ongoing study called PrEPVacc in Eastern and Southern Africa is evaluating a combination of experimental HIV vaccines and preventive drugs. Scientists have made headway in developing powerful antibodies that can neutralise the virus. And they are testing new vaccine technologies, including mRNA, against HIV

Still, the loss of the latest candidate underscores the challenges of designing a vaccine for an adversary as wily as HIV Four decades after its discovery, the virus still infects about 1.5 million people each year, and kills about 650,000.