International pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson has stopped a mid-stage test of its HIV vaccine in Southern Africa after the shot showed insufficient ability to protect people from contracting the virus, 263 Chat has confirmed.
“With vaccines, it looks very difficult to do. The virus integrates almost immediately into the body and it’s very difficult to create immune protection, ” he said.
The halting of the HIV vaccine is another setback in efforts to control the deadly disease afflicting almost 38 million people worldwide.
That African study enrolled about 2,600 women in five countries in the southern part of the continent, where HIV infection is extremely common and is often spread by heterosexual contact.
Imbokodo began enrolling participants in 2017, focusing on women at high risk of HIV.
Johnson and Johnson’s HIV vaccine uses a cold virus, altered to raise an immune response against the AIDS virus.
Participants received a total of four shots, two of the vaccine and two booster shots containing HIV proteins that were hoped to further sharpen the immune response.
