The candidate vaccine, DNA-rTV, relies on replication of the DNA of HIV to stimulate effective immunization, according to Shao Yiming, a chief HIV researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, adding that it's the first such HIV vaccine to begin a second-phase clinical trial.
This vaccine under development, which contains DNA segments from HIV instead of the full human immunodeficiency virus, will have a stronger and longer-lasting effect. It is also designed to target the HIV strains that are most common in China, Shao was cited by the newspaper as saying.
More than 130 volunteers have been recruited so far, and the initial work is underway at a hospital in Beijing and another in the city of Hangzhou, he added.
"Hopefully the second-phase trial will be completed in the latter half of 2021, and the third-phase clinical trial may start at the end of that year, which will involve thousands of volunteers in a trial to test the effectiveness of the vaccine to protect people against HIV," Shao said.