N Engl J Med 2021 03;384(12):1089-1100
From the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (G.E.G., Z.M., N. Grunenberg, Y.H., D.G., B.P., J.J.K., J.H., C.B., S.R., S.T., M.J., M. Sikhosana, M. Andrasik, J.G.K., M.J.M., P.B.G., H.J., L.C.), Seattle; the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand (G.E.G., F.L., E.L., B.M., T.P., S.T.), the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service (A.P.), and Aurum Institute (C.I., M. Sebe, W.B., P.S., T.A., G. Kobane), Johannesburg, Desmond Tutu HIV Centre (L.-G.B., S.K., C.N.N., M. Atujuna), the Department of Medicine, Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa, and Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (G.M., A.M.W.), and the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine (L.W.), University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Setshaba Research Centre, Soshanguve (M.M., K.S.M.), Mecru Clinical Research Unit, Sefako Mkgatho Health Sciences University, Ga-Rankuwa (M.N., M.P.M.), Nelson Mandela Academic Clinical Research Unit and Department of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha (T.D., P.M.), the School of Health Systems and Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria (S.T.), the South African Medical Research Council (G.E.G., D.K., N.S., V.N., G. Kistnasami, Z.G.) and the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, University of KwaZulu-Natal (N.N., N. Garrett), Durban, and Qhakaza Mbokodo Research Clinic, Ladysmith (P.K., P.B.M.) - all in South Africa; the Vaccine Research Program, Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda (M. Allen), and GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines, Rockville (N.K.-T.) - both in Maryland; the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta (D.B.); GSK Vaccines, Cambridge, MA (S.W.B.); Sanofi Pasteur, Swiftwater, PA (S.P., C.D.G.); GlaxoSmithKline, Siena, Italy (S.P.); GlaxoSmithKline, Wavre (M.K.), and GlaxoSmithKline, Rixensart (O.V.D.M.) - both in Belgium; and the Graduate Group in Biostatistics and the Center for Computational Biology, University of California, Berkeley (N.S.H.).
Background: A safe, effective vaccine is essential to eradicating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. A canarypox-protein HIV vaccine regimen (ALVAC-HIV plus AIDSVAX B/E) showed modest efficacy in reducing infection in Thailand. An analogous regimen using HIV-1 subtype C virus showed potent humoral and cellular responses in a phase 1-2a trial in South Africa. Read More