HIV vaccine science is at a crossroads. New science, new findings from recent phase III trials that ended without efficacy, innovations learned from COVID-19 vaccines, and new approaches to trial design are all contributing to a period of innovation and transition in HIV vaccine development. AVAC’s latest blog, An HIV Vaccine: The challenges ahead, frames these issues and draws highlights from a webinar series AVAC convened earlier this year.

In July, the Treatment Action Group (TAG) released its 2022 annual overview of research and development in HIV, Hepatitis and TB; it included a specific report on HIV vaccines and passive immunization, or bNAbs. This pipeline report provides added context to our blog.

And for more on HIV vaccines, read the May JIAS Viewpoint, HIV vaccines in 2022: where to from here?; AVAC’s backgrounder on experimental medicine vaccine trials (EMVTs), and AVAC’s fact sheet of early phase trials testing mRNA-based HIV vaccines—a one-stop sheet including a expanded snapshot of up-to-date mRNA trials and additional resources to explore and learn more.

A few highlights from these resources include:

• Research using mRNA technology for an HIV vaccine is in very early stages. This innovation could speed the research process, but cannot alone answer some of the most crucial questions bedeviling the advance of HIV vaccine research.
• The development of quick, iterative trial designs has become crucial, as the field continues to try and answer a fundamental question: what immune response needs to be triggered for effective protection against HIV. The use of innovative trial designs, including experimental medicine vaccine trials (EMVTs) hold promise and potential, and should be prioritized.
• Re-invigorated collaboration, recognizing the quest for an HIV vaccine as one of the greatest scientific challenges of the modern era, is essential to analyse closely what the field has learned to date, develop clarity on the critical scientific challenges and agree on a coordinated strategy to pursue answers.

Stay tuned for more updates on HIV vaccine R&D after next month’s bi-annual HIV Vaccine Trials Network meeting.

Just two years ago, AVAC highlighted the connections between COVID-19 and HIV, and outlined their implication. Two years later, those insights on Platforms, Process, Partnerships, Payers and Participatory Practices that Drive Vaccine Development remain critical. The field has continued to build on those insights as it considers priorities for the HIV vaccine field today—and tomorrow.

Because recent results from major HIV vaccine trials have had disappointments and reframed the questions the field must ask, AVAC hosted a 2022 webinar series on the progress in HIV vaccines in light of a rapidly changing research landscape. This document provides highlights from the presentations and discussions as part of this series to help advocates understand and mobilize around an agenda for HIV vaccine research and access.

Today is HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (HVAD), and AVAC has a full line-up of resources, presentations, perspectives pieces, webinars and partners to feature. This year, we’re focused on advocacy to generate new hypotheses, fresh ideas and novel strategies to what is tested, and how. It’s time to come together, consolidate what we’ve learned and coordinate a strategy for HIV vaccine research into the future.

Read

HIV vaccines in 2022: where to from here? A new Viewpoint in the Journal of the IAS, authored by AVAC’s Mitchell Warren and Stacey Hannah with IAVI’s Kundai Chinyenze, Imperial College’s Robin Shattock, Desmond Tutu Health Foundation and APHA’s Ntando Yola discusses the way forward for HIV vaccine development, in the context of recent trials and new initiatives.

Today, IAVI shared news of another Phase I trial using mRNA-based technology to test a new HIV vaccine candidate. Check out our updated snapshot of Phase 1 mRNA HIV Vaccine Trials that are underway.

The lack of efficacy in recent vaccine efficacy trials has prompted researchers to look for trial designs that can more quickly ask and answer key questions, inform decisions about which vaccine candidates to advance into larger trials and, hopefully, accelerate the discovery of viable vaccine candidates. Check out AVAC’s backgrounder on experimental medicine vaccine trials (EMVTs).

Listen

AVAC’s Jeanne Baron is joined by Avenir Health’s Katharine Kripke, Caltech’s Pamela Bjorkman and IAVI’s Vincent Muturi-Kioi to explore some of the key scientific challenges an HIV vaccine will have to overcome in another installment of the Px Pulse podcast series Research Fundamentals.

Participate

Don’t forget to join AVAC for its three-part webinar series kicking off today chaired by long-time HIV vaccine advocate and AVAC co-founder Bill Snow and moderated by AVAC’s Director of Research Engagement Stacey Hannah:

• Platforms & Pipelines: The miracle of mRNA: What’s possible beyond SARS-CoV-2—understanding mRNA, its history, and potential challenges for HIV vaccines.
  Wednesday May 18, 2022
  Recording and Slides: YouTube / Nina Russell’s Slides / Bart Haynes Slides

• Processes: The changed landscape of clinical research: the potential for experimental medicine vaccine trials in the current research environment.
  Tuesday May 24, 2022
  Recording and Slides: YouTube / Robin Shattock’s Slides / Gail Broder’s Slides / Pontiano Kaleebu’s Slides

• Prospects: What have we learned, why it matters and what it means? Understanding recent results in HIV vaccine research and implications for the future.
  Tuesday May 31, 2022
  Recording: YouTube

Thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of volunteers, researchers and advocates, the world has learned infinitely more about the human immune system, vaccine science and HIV than was known when HIV Vaccine Awareness Day was first commemorated twenty-five years ago, in 1997. We take this moment to recognize the tremendous progress made collectively over the years and to recommit to accelerating the ethical development and equitable delivery of an HIV vaccine.

Wednesday, May 18 is HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (HVAD), an annual call to action for advocates, researchers and policy makers—and an opportunity to take stock of the status of vaccine research, what the field has learned and what lies ahead in the global effort to develop an HIV vaccine.

Just two years ago, for HVAD 2020, AVAC highlighted the connections between COVID-19 and HIV, and outlined their implications in Five “P”s to Watch. Two years later, those insights on “Platforms, Process, Partnerships, Payers and Participatory Practices that Drive Vaccine Development” remain critical. The field has continued to build on those insights as it considers priorities for the HIV vaccine field today—and tomorrow.

Because recent results from major HIV vaccine trials have had disappointments and reframed the questions the field must ask, we all need to act with urgency to develop new and faster models for advancing HIV vaccine science that can adapt quickly to what is learned. And the field must continue to push new models for equitably delivering the fruits of that science.

So, this HVAD, the “P”s continue to evolve. AVAC has created resources and programming to inform your advocacy, kicking off with a series of conversations to reframe and re-energize the search for an HIV vaccine, the four “P”s of progress in HIV vaccine R&D: platforms and pipelines, processes and prospects. Check out our new resources below and join us for our HVAD webinar series this month.

New Resources

• Phase 1 mRNA HIV Vaccine Trials — a snapshot of early phase trials testing mRNA-based HIV vaccines.
• Experimental Medicine Vaccine Trials: Opportunities and Challenges — a look at an innovative trial design to hopefully accelerate the discovery of viable vaccine candidates.

Webinar Series

The series will be chaired by long-time HIV vaccine advocate and AVAC co-founder Bill Snow and moderated by AVAC’s Director of Research Engagement Stacey Hannah:

• Platforms & Pipelines
  Wednesday May 18, 2022
  The miracle of mRNA: What’s possible beyond SARS-CoV-2—understanding mRNA, its history, and potential challenges for HIV vaccines. With Bart Haynes (Duke University), Nina Russel (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and Ntando Yola (Desmond Tutu Health Foundation and Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS [APHA]).
  Recording and Slides: YouTube / Nina Russell’s Slides / Bart Haynes Slides

• Processes
  Tuesday May 24, 2022
  The changed landscape of clinical research: the potential for experimental medicine vaccine trials in the current research environment. With Gail Broder (HVTN), Pontiano Kaleebu (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit) and Robin Shattock (Imperial College London).
  Recording and Slides: YouTube / Robin Shattock’s Slides / Gail Broder’s Slides / Pontiano Kaleebu’s Slides

• Prospects
  Tuesday May 31, 2022 @ 10:00am EDT
  What have we learned, why it matters and what it means? Understanding recent results in HIV vaccine research and implications for the future. Unpacking results from Uhambo and Imbokodo trials and understanding the implications for the current pipeline of products. With Galit Alter (Harvard University), William Kilembe (Zambia-Emory HIV Research Project, ZEHRP), Ethel Makila (IAVI) and Dale Hu (NIH).
  Recording: YouTube

And One More Webinar from Our Partners

Also on Wednesday, May 18th, join the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in partnership with APHA, AVAC and other partners for an additional webinar looking at progress in HIV vaccine research featuring DTHF’s Linda Gail-Bekker and AVAC’s Maureen Luba.

We hope you’ll review our new resources and take part in these HVAD 2022 webinars.

And stay tuned for more HVAD resources and perspectives to come out later in the week!