HIV prevention has made substantial progress and conducting large and lengthy trials is becoming more difficult and costly with uncertain chances of success. As such, rapid and iterative improvements may be best achieved in pre-clinical and small-scale trials. In this context, there is a growing interest in experimental medicine approaches where product development is directly informed by human data at an early stage of product development rather than pre-clinical or animal data to support further development. Experimental medicine clinical research, sometimes also referred to as Phase 0 studies, can also accelerate progressing the most pertinent candidates through the development pipeline.
This webinar series aim to (1) outline experimental medicine research and how the approach can hasten HIV vaccine research and development and (2) discuss current or planned experimental medicine trials of HIV vaccines testing new designs and strategies. Lessons learnt from other fields of medicine, ethical challenges, and community perspectives will also be discussed in the context of research conducted to speed up and streamline the R&D process, but which benefit will be for other studies and people in the future.