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news.Vical Incorporated has initiated a phase II clinical trial, sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health, of a "prime-boost" vaccine approach to HIV.
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The trial involves priming an immune response with multiple doses of a plasmid DNA vaccine, based on Vical’s proprietary DNA delivery technology, and boosting the response with a single dose of adenoviral vector vaccine given at a later date.
The vaccine was developed by scientists at the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and was manufactured by Vical.
The vaccine incorporates HIV genetic material from the three most globally important HIV subtypes, clades A, B and C, which are involved in about 85% of all HIV infections around the world.
Vical has produced multiple DNA vaccines for the VRC against infectious disease targets including Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and West Nile virus, all of which have advanced into phase I clinical trials over the past two years.
“VRC’s progress in advancing to a phase II trial with the prime-boost vaccine configuration is an important milestone for our technology,” said Vijay Samant, Vical’s president and chief executive officer.