Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is set to test an experimental HIV vaccine in the U.S. and Europe sometime this year, the company confirmed with CNBC. The experimental J&J vaccine is a mosaic-based preventative immunization that targets various strains of the HIV virus.
The company is also conducting a phase 2 clinical trial for the vaccine in Africa, in which 2,600 women in five southern African countries will be immunized. Initial results from that trial are expected by 2021, J&J said. The J&J trial comes amid President Donald Trump’s pledge to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030, a goal which public health advocates have cheered and have sought for years. Pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences, which dominates the $26 billion-a-year HIV drug market, reached an agreement with the Trump administration to donate medications that reduce the risk of HIV transmission for up to 200,000 people a year until 2025. In late April, J&J and GlaxoSmithKline majority-owned ViiV Healthcare filed a new drug application with the FDA for its once-a-month injection treatment for HIV. In March, the two companies posted late-stage data that showed the shot was as effective as standard daily pills for controlling HIV. Bloomberg first reported the company’s plan to conduct a clinical trial in the U.S. and Europe. Source: CNBC