US NIH unit halts most advanced HIV vaccine study on poor results

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, will stop administering injections in its HVTN 505 clinical trial of an investigational HIV vaccine regimen because an independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) found during a scheduled interim review that the vaccine regimen did not prevent HIV infection nor reduce viral load (the amount of HIV in the blood) among vaccine recipients who became infected with HIV.

The HVTN 505 study began in 2009 and was testing an investigational prime-boost vaccine regimen developed by NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center. The Phase IIb study, conducted by the NIAID-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), was designed to determine whether the vaccine regimen could prevent HIV infection and/or reduce the amount of virus in the blood of vaccine recipients who became infected with HIV.

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