NIAID Will Not Move Forward With HIV Vaccine Trial

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, will not conduct its PAVE 100 HIV vaccine study.

The study would have evaluated 2,400 U.S.-based, circumcised, gay men who lack pre-existing neutralizing antibodies to adenovirus type 5, the common cold virus used as a carrier for the HIV genes in the vaccine. The trial would have tested the NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC) vaccine for its ability to lower viral load, the amount of HIV in the blood of vaccinated people who may later become infected.

Based on previous data and budget constraints, the NIAID decided the VRC regimen did not warrant a trial of this size and scope. An alternative, smaller study to test the vaccine’s effect on viral load is being considered, the NIAID said.