5 January 2012 - Profectus BioSciences Inc, a US-based vaccine developer, said that, as of 27 December 2011, 20 volunteers have been immunised as part of its Phase I trial designed to asses the safety and immunogenicity of a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV)-vectored HIV vaccine.

The new rVSV vector, expressing the HIV-1 gag protein, is being assessed in a study partly-funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study is being conducted by the NIAID-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) under a protocol designated HVTN 090.

The Phase I, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation study will enrol 60 HIV-uninfected adults and will evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of increasing doses of the rVSV HIV-1 gag vaccine.