Johnson & Johnson to Test a Pioneering HIV Vaccine: Brainstorm Health
Johnson & Johnson announced it will test a vaccine to prevent HIV in the U.S. and Europe.
Happy Friday, readers!
Johnson & Johnson doesn’t just want to treat HIV—it wants to prevent against it altogether with an experimental vaccine.
The U.S. drug giant announced Friday that will test out the vaccine in the U.S. and Europe this year, according to CNBC. If it proves successful—following testing on thousands of men who have sex with men—it could become the first approved immunization against the virus.
That would be one of the most significant advances in a field that’s been filled with milestones over the past few decades. For instance, biotech Gilead’s Truvada can prevent HIV transmission among those who take the pill regularly by more than 90%, according to clinical trial data.
And earlier this week, Viiv Healthcare—a joint collaboration between J&J, GlaxoSmithKline, and Shionogi in which Glaxo holds a majority stake—said it would launch trials testing the practicality of a once-monthly HIV treatment injection in U.S. clinics.
Read on for the day’s news, and have a wonderful weekend.
Sy Mukherjee, @the_sy_guy, sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com