African HIV vaccines deemed ineffective

The PrEPVacc HIV prevention study of experimental vaccine regimens and a new form of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) running in East and Southern Africa among 1,500 volunteer participants has stopped further vaccinations.

It was deemed that there was little or no chance of the trial demonstrating vaccine efficacy in preventing HIV, a disappointing outcome for PrEPVacc, an African-led, European-supported HIV prevention project that, for the first time, is combining evaluation of HIV vaccines and PrEP at the same time.

"We must look to a new generation of vaccine approaches and technology to take us forward again"PrEPVacc’s leadership decided to stop vaccinations immediately, based on the recommendation of its independent data monitoring committee (IDMC), which also recommended that the oral PrEP component of the study continue to completion.