Moderna shares soared nearly 13% in morning trading.
Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq:MRNA), a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, today announced that the first participant has been dosed in a clinical trial of an experimental human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) trimer mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1574).
"Developing a vaccine regimen that induces sustained protective levels of HIV neutralizing antibodies in humans has been difficult to achieve. At Moderna, we believe that mRNA offers an opportunity to take a fresh approach to this challenge. With the launch of our second HIV vaccine trial, we are advancing our strategy to utilize multiple mRNA encoded native-like HIV trimers and leverage the power of our mRNA platform to accelerate the discovery of a protective HIV vaccine," said Stephen Hoge, M.D., President of Moderna. "This study is another step in our fight against HIV, as well as other latent viruses such as our recently launched studies in CMV and EBV."
The open-label, multicenter, randomized Phase 1 trial (HVTN 302) is designed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of experimental HIV trimer mRNA vaccines. The primary hypothesis is that the soluble and membrane-bound HIV envelope trimer mRNA vaccines will be safe and well-tolerated by HIV-uninfected individuals and will elicit autologous neutralizing antibodies. The trial is expected to enroll approximately 100 HIV-negative adults, aged 18 to 55 years.
"It is gratifying to see that the experience with mRNA as a critical COVID-19 vaccine platform is now entering the HIV vaccine field," said Dr. Larry Corey, Principal Investigator, HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) Leadership Operations Center, which is based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "We are optimistic that this study will pave the way for continued approaches for using mRNA in HIV."
The trial is sponsored and funded by the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier isNCT05217641. The envelope trimers being evaluated in this study were developed by William Schief, Ph.D., and colleagues. Dr. Schief is a professor at Scripps Research and executive director of vaccine design at IAVI's Neutralizing Antibody Center. Development of the native-like HIV trimers and manufacture of the HIV trimer mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1574) was funded by an NIAID (DAIDS) Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD) grant to Scripps Research.
HIV is the virus responsible for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a lifelong, progressive illness with no effective cure. Worldwide, approximately 38 million are currently living with HIV, including approximately 1.2 million in the U.S.
Moderna is currently advancing two HIV preventative vaccine strategies based on germline targeting and immune-focusing approaches. In addition to this HIV trimer mRNA vaccine trial of mRNA-1574, Moderna is partnering in testing of HIV vaccine antigens mRNA-1644 and mRNA-1644v2-Core, being evaluated in aPhase I trialsponsored by IAVI and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.