Keeping tabs on pharma: Oxford HIV vaccine trial gets underway and Covid-19 data reveals men more likely to die from disease than woman

It's been a busy week for Covid-19 related news, with the UK government announcing an end to most restrictions from 19 July in England, despite infection rates continuing to climb. The success of the vaccine roll out in the UK has been evident in the lower number of infections leading to hospitalizations compared to previous waves, however, the country’s health minister conceded that cases could rise to more than 100,000 a day.

Last week, Pharma IQ launched its latest report on how design-led strategies can help pharma firms overcome challenges presented by changing consumer expectations. The report, produced in collaboration with Indegene, looks at disruptive healthcare technologies and why design-thinking is driving commercial transformation within pharma.

Below we dive into two of the biggest stories of the week from the world of pharma, including exciting news on a potential HIV vaccine in the UK and the latest on gender disparity revealed in Covid-19 data trends.

Oxford trial aims to end 40-year wait for HIV vaccine

Vaccinations of a novel HIV vaccine candidate, part of a UK-based Phase I clinical trial, has been started by The University of Oxford.

A total of 13 HIV-negative adults who are all at a low risk of infection will receive one dose of the vaccine followed by a further booster dose four weeks later.

The HIV-CORE 0052 trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the HIVconsvX vaccine and will form part of the European Aids Vaccine Initiative (EAVI2020), an international research collaboration funded by the European Commission. Researchers working on the trial have said that they will aim to report on its results by April 2022.

“An effective HIV vaccine has been elusive for 40 years,” commented Professor Tomáš Hanke, Lead Researcher on the trial and Professor of Vaccine Immunology at the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute. “This trial is the first in a series of evaluations of this novel vaccine strategy in both HIV-negative individuals for prevention and in people living with HIV for cure.”

Dr Paola Cicconi, Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, and the trial Chief Investigator, added: “Achieving protection against HIV is extremely challenging and it is important that we harness the protective potential of both the antibody and T cell arms of the immune system.”

In 2020, the pace of decline in new HIV infections failed to reach a UN-set target of fewer than 500,000 new infections per year.

Covid-19 gender data reveals disease affects more men than women

Covid-19 affects men and women differently, according to a paper published in Nature Communications. As reported by Science Magazine, for every 18 men admitted to an intensive care unit for Covid-19 globally, there are 10 woman. For every 15 men who die of Covid-19, 10 women die.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a gender gap is opening up in the US for vaccination rates, with women ahead of men by 6 percentage points. Meanwhile, rare adverse effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine have appeared to strike women more frequently, while the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were more likely to affect young men.

The paper’s findings have been noted as consistent with other studies, including a recent study of Covid-19 trials published in EClinicalMedicine which found that of 30 trials, none explored whether results had been affected by sex.

Sarah Hawkes, co-director of Global Health 50/50, said that the Covid-19 pandemic had “shone a light on the importance of sex and gender in a way that very few other conditions have managed to do”, noting the time was ripe for researchers to shine a light on differences between the sexes.

If you missed last week’s Keeping tabs on Pharma update, dive into it here or head to Pharma IQ’s content hub to discover all Keeping tab features.