HIV vaccine enters second phase of testing on volunteers

The second phase of a human trial for China’s potential HIV vaccine started on Tuesday in Beijing. About 150 volunteers, mostly those with a high risk of contracting HIV, including gay people, took part in the clinical trial. Shao Yiming, director of the virology and immunology department of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, said at a news conference that the trial will last nearly two years in the Beijing You’an Hospital of the Capital Medical University. “The phase 2 clinical trial mainly aims to test the vaccine’s safety and is crucial for the introduction of the next phase, which will test its effectiveness,” Shao told China Daily. “The vaccine candidate is promising, as the phase 1 trial conducted among 46 volunteers found that it could induce immune responses to HIV among some recipients,” said Shao, one of the founders of the China AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Results of the latest trials are expected...