Animal and early human trials have shown that a new AIDS vaccine is safe and can induce an immune response, and then they will conduct efficacy trials in a wider population.

    Researchers at Harvard University reported Evaluation of a mosaic HIV-1 vaccine in a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 1/2a clinical trial (APPROACH) and in rhesus monkeys (NHP 13-19) in a new issue of the British Lancet that the vaccine is a "mosaic vaccine" that splicing the genes of different HIV strains to target a wider range of HIV. The strain induces an immune response. This is the fifth AIDS vaccine to enter the second phase of clinical efficacy trials in 35 years. Only one of the four vaccines had a protective effect. The AIDS vaccine called RV144 reduced the risk of infection by 31%.

    In the latest trial, researchers recruited 393 healthy adults from countries such as South Africa, Thailand, and the United States, and volunteers were randomized to a “mosaic vaccine” or placebo. The results showed that the vaccine successfully induced an antiviral immune response and the subject was well tolerated.

    Experiments conducted with 72 macaques showed that this "mosaic vaccine" protected 48 of them from being infected with human monkey chimeric immunodeficiency virus (SHIV). The human monkey chimeric immunodeficiency virus is similar to HIV and can infect monkeys.

    Currently, researchers have initiated Phase II clinical efficacy trials in Southern Africa. A total of 2,600 high-risk women with HIV infection are participating, and trial results are expected in 2021 or 2022.