Therapeutic AIDS Vaccines

Clinical Trials of Therapeutic AIDS Vaccines
Currently, there are no approved therapeutic vaccines for people infected with HIV. To date, scientists have conducted more than 30 NIAID-funded therapeutic vaccine clinical trials. Additionally, new vaccine candidates are being tested as both potential therapeutic and preventive vaccines.

Therapeutic vaccine research started in the early 1990s with several trials in the United States and Europe in volunteers on antiretroviral therapy (ART). In June 1992, AVEG began its first therapeutic vaccine trial, enrolling 55 HIV-infected men and women. The experimental gp160 vaccine was found to be safe. The first therapeutic vaccine trial enrolling asymptomatic HIV-infected children and HIV-infected pregnant women began in 1993.

The current NIAID-funded network conducting therapeutic vaccine studies is the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG). The group was created in 1987 as a network of domestic clinical sites to develop therapeutic agents to treat HIV and opportunistic infections and malignancies. By 1991, ACTG was divided to create the Adult ACTG (AACTG) and the Pediatric ACTG (PACTG). As the largest network of its kind in the world, ACTG carries out a broad scientific, therapeutic, and pathogenesis-based research agenda.