Vical's HIV DNA vacc safe and tolerated

San Diego, USA-based Vical says that a Phase I clinical trial of its prime-boost DNA vaccine in HIV-uninfected patients was safe and well-tolerated, and was highly effective in inducing T-cell immune responses with multiple functions that may be important for controlling HIV infection.

The trial involved priming an immune response with three doses of a plasmid DNA vaccine, based on Vical's proprietary delivery technology, and boosting the response with a single dose of adenoviral vector vaccine given at a later date.

Vical initiated a similar National Institutes of Health-sponsored trial recently in patients already infected with HIV (Marketletter August 23). A larger multinational Phase II trial in several thousand HIV-uninfected subjects is expected to begin in early 2007.