SA Medical Research Council awaits green light for new HIV vaccine

The SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) is waiting for a green light from the SA Health Products Regulation Authority following their application to have a new HIV vaccine be clinically tested in the country, Cape Argus reported.

The PrEPVacc is the first vaccine trial that attempts to incorporate pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) realistically, in addition to the vaccine participants tested.

The trial will evaluate two experimental HIV vaccine combinations for the prevention of HIV infection, each compared against a placebo.

Through research centres, a minimum number of 1668 eligible adults aged 18 to 40 will be offered PrEP through the study to cover the period spanning the first three immunisations in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda.

“The significance of the PrEPVacc trial cannot be measured. Each country is committed to reduced new HIV infections and possibly a new HIV vaccine prevention,” said SAMRC president and chief executive Professor Glenda Gray.

“The PrEPVacc trial will either rule out or encourage further development of the combination regimens tested for preventing HIV and it will trial two regimens,” she said.

Gray said that the organisation was also testing a preventive oral medicine Descovy drug, which is more effective than the Truvada drug.

A successful trial will mean that the vaccination strategy would be effective in offering protection against HIV infection.

“This would be the third active HIV vaccination trial in our region, if the application submitted by the SA Medical Research Council is approved,” she said.

“We are searching for HIV-negative participants, who [are] at [an] increased risk of HIV, including commercial sex workers, people who catch fish for a living, men who have sex with men, and people working around main highways. The chances of these people participating in other biomedical research studies are very low,” said Gray.

“The trial mustn’t be rushed because we want to find a drug that will help people,” said Desmond Tutu HIV Centre director Professor Linda-Gail Bekker

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