NIH Joins Clinical Trial of New Tuberculosis Vaccine

This is the first time that NIH is leveraging its HIV/AIDS clinical trial networks to advance a tuberculosis vaccine candidate.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), has joined as a partner for a Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trial of a tuberculosis vaccine candidate jointly developed by US-based non-profit developer Aeras and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell.

NIH has a long history of supporting TB vaccine development. However, this is the first time that NIH is leveraging its HIV/AIDS clinical trial networks to advance a tuberculosis vaccine candidate. Along with the recent announcement of NIAID's new partnership in a Phase III TB drug trial, this collaboration follows the NIAID plan to leverage infrastructure originally intended for HIV-related clinical trials to also advance tuberculosis vaccine and therapeutic research for both HIV uninfected and infected populations.