Johnson & Johnson HIV Drug Doesn’t Make it through the First Trial

Johnson & Johnson developed an HIV Vaccine that failed during the mid-stage of trial. The company plans to end that study, which involved young women in sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers have decided to continue a separate, late-stage trial involving a different composition of the vaccine in men and transgender people.

The study in sub-Saharan Africa involved about 2,600 women who were deemed to be at high risk of acquiring HIV, which causes AIDS. Participants were randomly selected to receive either the vaccine or a placebo, and researchers found that the vaccine was only 25% effective at preventing HIV.

Dr. Paul Stoffels, Johnson & Johnson chief scientific officer, said tha is a unique and complex virus that has long posed unprecedented challenges for vaccine development because of its ability to attack, hijack and evade the human immune system. said its other study of the potential vaccine is being conducted in Europe and the Americas, where different strains of  are circulating.

New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson also makes one of the three vaccines approved by U.S. regulators to prevent COVID-19. J&J also is developing vaccines for sepsis and respiratory syncytial virus. The study was first launched in 2017 and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.In the study, 63 of 1,109 volunteers in the placebo group developed HIV, while 51 of the 1,079 volunteers who received the vaccine developed HIV. About 38 million people are infected with. It is currently a treatable disease, but there’s still no vaccine prevention, and it can be deadly, especially in developing countries.