A new phase III HIV vaccine trial will soon be underway for men who have sex with men and transgender people. The study, called Mosaico, will evaluate a four-shot regimen of a vaccine designed to provide protection against the many different strains of HIV around the world.

“We are committed to ensuring that HIV vaccine trial results are generalizable to the populations that carry the greatest burden of HIV infection,” said Dr Susan Buchbinder, Mosaico protocol chair and director of Bridge HIV at the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Buchbinder and others involved in the vaccine's development and trial administration discussed the Mosaico study at a session preceding the opening of the 10th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2019) yesterday in Mexico City.

Mosaico will evaluate the selected vaccine in 3800 cisgender men who have sex with men and transgender people, aged 18 to 60, living in North America, South America and Europe, where Clade B HIV is predominant. There will be 24 study sites in the US, nine in Brazil, five in Peru, four in Argentina and three in Mexico. European sites will be in Spain (six sites), Italy and Poland (three sites each). Buchbinder said enrolment is expected to start in September. Eligible individuals must be at increased risk for HIV. Read more via AIDSmap