Clinical Trial Shows Promise of Immune Therapy HIV Vaccine

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Two researchers gave findings from a Phase II clinical trial, sponsored by FIT Biotech, a biotechnology company in Tampere, Finland, showing the company’s immunomodulator FIT-06 vaccine offered long-term reductions in viral load and statistically significant CD4 (white blood or T) cell count increases in HIV-infected, previously untreated patients. The effects lasted longer than two years in the absence of any anti-retroviral therapy.

The results were presented this week at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria by Eftyhia Vardas, the principal investigator of FIT Biotech’s clinical study and Giuseppe Pantealeo of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The company says that the study, carried out in South Africa, represents the first time that an immune-based HIV intervention has reduced the viral presence in previously untreated patients, and thus could eventually offer an alternative to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for those who have no access to ART.

FIT-06 is a DNA-based therapeutic vaccine, different from prophylactic (preventative) vaccines in development, in that it is used to treat patients who are already infected rather than given to healthy individuals. In this trial, FIT-06 was tested as a standalone treatment but in principle it could also be deployed in conjunction with ART.

Hat tip: Fierce Biotech