EHVA project comes to a close – Final newsletter

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For over 7 years EATG has been the community partner of the EHVA project, a multi-disciplinary consortium that has been conducting HIV vaccine research to discover and progress novel vaccine candidates. The project was concluded in December 2023. 


Since 2016, more than 41 partners across the EHVA consortium, representing institutions from 11 countries in Europe, four in Sub-Sahara Africa, and 2 in the US, have been conducting cutting-edge HIV vaccine research to discover and progress novel vaccine candidates through the clinic.

With thanks to the generous funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, EHVA has leveraged multidisciplinary expertise from vaccine discovery to immune monitoring and clinical development, using state-of-the-art innovative technologies to profile immune responses and virus reservoir, and develop and test novel HIV vaccine candidates in the clinic. Over the last eight years, EHVA has worked across top European clinical centres in the fields of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines to investigate a panel of experimental HIV vaccines under clinical development . Further, EHVA has liaised with leading scientists and programs in Africa to foster future testing of EHVA vaccines in Sub-Saharan Africa.

On behalf of EHVA’s leadership, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has made this work possible. Amidst a challenging research environment, not least during the COVID-19 pandemic, the perseverance, motivation, and ingenuity of all involved has ensured that the work conducted under EHVA has been of the highest calibre, helping advance the field of HIV vaccine development towards our shared goal of one day having an effective HIV vaccine.

Keep reading for some final updates and reflections on the EHVA consortium.


EHVA clinical trial updates – EHVA P01 Phase 1 trial of therapeutic vaccine candidate ongoing

To date, EHVA has investigated HIV vaccine candidates across three planned clinical trials:

  • EHVA T01: Phase 1/2 trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of a therapeutic prime-boost vaccine regimen in combination with a monoclonal antibody.
  • EHVA T02: Phase 2 placebo-controlled trial evaluating an investigational therapeutic HIV vaccine and immunotherapy drug, vedolizumab, for people living with HIV.
  • EHVA P01: Phase 1 prophylactic HIV vaccine trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of HIV Clade C DREP alone and in combination with a Clade C ENV protein in healthy HIV-uninfected adults.

While EHVA T01 and EHVA T02 unfortunately had to be halted early due to challenges in recruiting sufficient numbers of participants, EHVA P01 is ongoing.

EHVA P01, which commenced in January 2023, is a Phase I, prophylactic HIV vaccine trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of HIV Clade C DREP alone and in combination with a Clade C ENV protein in healthy HIV-uninfected adults. The trial will run until December 2024. The trial is fully enrolled and follow-up is ongoing. Data generated to date have shown that the vaccine is safe and well tolerated. Preliminary immunogenicity results are expected towards the end of 2024. The research team looks forward to sharing results from the trial following its conclusion.

This trial was also featured on BBC news, with trial participant Dan Harry sharing his motivations for participating in the trial and shining light on the work of the research team.


A robust evidence base – publications, conference, and community engagement

Scientific publications
EHVA partners have published over 70 peer-reviewed articles over the last eight years, detailing diverse research conducted under the consortium’s work packages from vaccine discovery to immune monitoring and clinical development. Keep an eye on the website for more publications beyond the consortium’s end date.

Explore all the publications here.

Conferences
Work conducted under EHVA has been featured at a range of conferences around the world: including HIV R4P in 2016 and 2018, the European AIDS Conference in 2017 and 2019, IAS Conference on HIV Science in 2017, IAS AIDS in 2018, and CROI in 2020, 2021, and 2023.

Community engagement
The European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) has led our community engagement efforts to ensure close collaboration with the community of people living with and affected by HIV throughout the consortium’s existence, including featuring the work of EHVA at the annual STEPS community-led workshops.


Bye, for now! – Final EHVA Full Group Meeting, Paris, France (5-6 December 2023)

The final full group meeting for the EHVA consortium took place in Paris, France on 5-6 December 2023 and was attended by 35 members from across the EHVA partners, including work package leads, Principle Investigators, and a range of other EHVA collaborators. During the meeting, presentations were delivered by the leads of each work package, reviewing the work conducted under EHVA and future plans for the respective work packages.


In memoriam

As EHVA comes to a close, we reflect on the dedication and work of two of EHVA’s colleagues who we sadly lost during the last few years.

Dr Charles Boucher, professor of antiviral therapy at Erasmus MC in the Netherlands, who passed away in 2021, made major contributions to the areas of HIV virology and drug resistance. He had a passion for addressing scientific challenges to help improve the lives of patients worldwide.

Giulio Maria Corbelli, HIV activist and member of EATG passed in 2022. His contribution in EATG’s work has been pivotal and his passion, knowledge, strength and optimism will remain inspirational to all who worked with him.


Upcoming events

Looking ahead, two premiere HIV conferences are coming up in 2024, check them out below:

IAS AIDS, Munich, Germany, July 2024

Munich is set to host the 25th International AIDS Conference from 22-26 July 2024. It is expected to convene 15,000 of people living with, affected by and working on HIV to share knowledge, best practices and lessons learnt from the HIV response over the past 40 years, as well as from the responses to COVID-19, mpox and other public health threats.

  • Standard registration fees are available until 13 May 2024

5th HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P), Lima, Peru, 6-10 October 2024

The 5th HIVR4P will take place in Lima, Peru from 6-10 October 2024. HIVR4P is the only global scientific conference focused exclusively on the challenging and fast-growing field of HIV prevention research. This conference fosters interdisciplinary knowledge exchange on HIV vaccines, microbicides, PrEP, treatment as prevention and biomedical interventions, as well as their social and behavioural implications.

  • Abstracts submission is open until 10 April 2024
  • Standard registration fees are available until 7 August 2024

 


With thanks to our funder

This project has received funding from the European Union’s horizon 2020  research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 681032.

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