“This is not the end of the AIDS, it’s not even the beginning of the end. It is just, perhaps, the end of the beginning. “Erwann Loret, director of the laboratory of structural biology of the Marseille hospital of Timone, at the origin of the vaccine does not yet claim victory. For the moment, these are only the first tests, but the hope is immense, since the efficacy of the vaccine was measured in monkeys in January.
Now that the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) has given the green light to start clinical trials, 48 patients will test this new vaccine for a year. During this time, seropositive patients on triple therapy will have to interrupt their treatment for two months to validate the effective dose of the vaccine, before resuming their treatment.
AIDS: a vaccine to replace triple therapy
Erwann Loret explains to Provence the objective of this vaccine: “to reduce the infection to prevent patients from continuing a triple therapy for life, with serious side effects; and possibly to succeed in blocking the virus”. If these first tests are successful, a second phase will be tested on 80 volunteers, this time with a group that will receive a placebo. Spanish researchers recently developed a vaccine with temporary efficacy because it would block the progression of the disease for a year.