Erin Gabriel
There have been more than 100 HIV vaccine trials since 1988. There have been 3 main types of trials and not one has shown a substantial reduction in acquisition until the Thai trial that combined two previously non-efficacious vaccine types. The two types of vaccines were tested previously in the STEP trial and the VaxGen trials. The STEP trial was stopped early due to lack of efficacy along with some evidence of harm. The long term follow-up has shown that actual harm is unlikely and I will discuss the different approaches to analyzing this challenging data. The VaxGen trial found no effect of the purely antibody vaccine. The Thai trial has caused a stir with it’s greater than 30% estimated effect. I will discuss the results and why it should give us hope for the future.
