A potential cure for HIV from American Gene Technologies has been given the go-ahead from the Food and Drug Administration for the first phase of human trials. 

“This is momentous news that we have FDA approval to launch phase I and conduct our first human trials,” said David Pauza, AGT’s Chief Science Officer.

“We are beyond excited to reach this milestone. This brings us closer to our goal of transforming lives with genetic medicine”.

Pauza went on to say that based on “successful commercial-scale runs” of the gene therapy, it has “high potential to be effective”.

Exciting!

And we should have some news of how effective by the end of the year, with the trials beginning in September (2020) in Universities of Maryland, Washington and Georgetown.

The drug, called AGT103-T, is a single-dose lentiviral vector-based gene therapy developed to eliminate HIV. It does this by repairing immune system damage and assisting the body’s natural responses to control the virus.

This is done through an 11-day process of increasing HIV-fighting T cells and boosting their rate of survival within an HIV-infected body.

According to UNAIDS, over 38 million people are currently living with HIV.

[H/t: Instinct]