NIH launches initiative to develop long-acting HIV treatment with GSK

The USA’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, launched a major initiative to advance novel approaches to treat and prevent HIV infections based on broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) yesterday.

A public-private partnership has been established for this effort between the NIAID and UK pharmaceutical major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) to enable researchers to develop one or more bNAbs, which can stop a wide range of HIV strains from infecting human cells in the laboratory, into a product to treat or prevent HIV infection.

The partnership combines the expertise of NIAID scientists in discovering and analyzing HIV bNAbs with GSK’s pharmaceutical development capability and experience in HIV research. Research and development will be conducted by NIAID’s Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC) scientists under a five-year cooperative research and development agreement with GSK.