In Russia, there has been talk for several years about the imminent creation of a vaccine against HIV, but no clinical trials have been conducted.
In Russia there are prototypes of the HIV vaccine, said the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova. “Russia has been involved in the development of an HIV vaccine for a sufficient number of years, we have our own prototypes, we have our own vaccines. The Vector Research Center has its own prototype, and several other research organizations in the Russian Federation have their own prototypes,” Popova told journalists in response to a question from RIA Novosti.
Popova spoke about the prototype vaccine on World AIDS Day. “Vector” has been working on an HIV vaccine for over 20 years, and the first trials on volunteers have already been conducted, said Rinat Maksyutov, the head of “Vector”, in an interview with Ura.ru.
According to him, the vaccine prototype has successfully completed the first phase of clinical trials in volunteers, but now the trials are suspended. He did not comment on the reasons for the suspension of the trials and the timing of their resumption.
Officials spoke about the readiness of the Russian vaccine against HIV for testing as early as 2014. “One of the experimental samples of the Russian vaccine against HIV infection will be prepared by the end of this year and will enter the phase of clinical trials,” said the former head of the Ministry of Health, Veronika Skvortsova.
“This [Popova’s statement about the existence of a vaccine prototype in Russia] is not news; for several years now, trials of three vaccine candidates have been going on, but so far no breakthroughs have been announced,” said Igor Pchelin, chairman of the AIDS foundation “Steps,” in a conversation with the BBC. The candidates for the preventive vaccine have not yet reached the second stage of research.
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Oleg Yurin, an infectious disease specialist and senior researcher at the Russian Scientific and Methodological Center for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, agrees: “Since 1991 I have regularly heard [about the vaccine] that it will be ‘soon’. Maybe Popova knows better, she’s more professionally involved, I treat HIV infection with drugs, but I haven’t heard of any significant progress [in vaccine development],” says Yurin. He notes that it is necessary to understand that Popova is talking about “therapeutic” or preventive vaccines.
In addition to candidates for prophylactic vaccines, there are candidates for therapeutic vaccines in Russia – drugs that will allow the elimination of constant intake of antiretroviral therapy. Currently, there are three of them: a vaccine created at the Institute of Immunology in Moscow, the Vector Virology and Biotechnology Center in Novosibirsk, and the Biomedical Center in St. Petersburg. There are no reports yet on the success of their clinical trials.
In 2014, the “Biomedical Center” announced the start of the second phase of research, stating that if successful, the vaccine could be available in three to four years, but this never materialized. In 2018, the Moscow City Center for HIV Prevention and Control reported that trials of another therapeutic vaccine would begin in Moscow the following year. “This is one of the most promising therapeutic vaccines in the world, i.e. a vaccine that accompanies a person with HIV. It works in such a way that the patient does not need to take drugs for a long time. This is very important and reduces the cost of treatment,” said Alexey Mazus, the chief external specialist in the capital for the diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection. There was no information about the completion of these trials”.
Several prophylactic vaccines are being developed in other countries. For example, a candidate called HVTN 7026 started development in South Africa in 2016. Its trials are currently on hold due to a lack of significant results. There is also a candidate combination vaccine called MOSAICO, which was first tested in monkeys and showed promising results. Since the end of 2019, clinical trials of this vaccine have been conducted on several thousand people in the United States. Trials of another vaccine candidate, called IMBOKODO, will be completed in February 2022. Its efficacy is currently estimated at 67%.
No vaccine has yet been developed that is highly effective against the HIV virus, which was discovered about 40 years ago, because the virus is constantly mutating, making scientists’ attempts futile. All known approaches have been tried to create vaccines against HIV, but they all remain unpromising. In 2009, a vaccine developed in Thailand reduced the risk of HIV infection by 60%. However, after three years of research, this indicator fell to 31%. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an infectious disease that affects the immune system. Without therapy, the virus causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a much more serious condition of the immune system in which a person can die from any infection or other virus.