There Could Be an HIV Vaccine as Soon as 2021

Scientists are reportedly “optimistic” that a new HIV vaccine could be available as early as 2021.

There are currently three potential vaccines entering final testing, and according to Dr. Susan Buchbinder, director of the Bridge HIV research program at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the result is “perhaps one of the most optimistic moments we have been in” when it comes to developing a vaccine against the virus.

“We have three vaccines being tested in efficacy trials, and it takes quite a bit to actually be promising enough in the earlier stages stages of trials to move you forward into an efficacy study,” she explained.

All three of the potential vaccines would likely require multiple jab doses. One of them, HVTN 702, is based on an earlier vaccine candidate RV144, which was deemed not effective enough to reach the market, despite lowering the rate of HIV infections by about 30 percent in trials. HVTN 702 is a modified version that aims to increase the magnitude and duration of the protection against HIV it provides.

As Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, points out, however, even a “partially effective” vaccine could still be “a game-changer for turning the epidemic around.”

The other two vaccines being tested, Imbokodo and Mosaico, are reportedly being tested on women in Africa and gay men and trans people in the United States and other countries, respectively, in an attempt to determine their efficacy on different at-risk populations.

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