Moderna announced a new collaboration to employ mRNA technology to meet the challenge of a range of global health threats. These diseases - HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), antimicrobial-resistant enteric infections, and Covid-19 - are estimated to have caused at least 95 million new infections and more than 4 million deaths in 2020 alone. The collaboration combines the power of Moderna's mRNA platform and IAVI's expertise in the discovery and product development to advance vaccines and antibodies designed to be globally accessible, especially in low-income countries where the targeted diseases have high incidence and prevalence.

"We are excited to partner with IAVI to leverage the power of mRNA and extend our commitment to global health across multiple diseases. Moderna's mRNA platform, with its speed, scale, and flexibility, is uniquely suited to tackle current and emerging pathogens," said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. "With our mRNA technology and IAVI's discovery and development expertise, together we have an opportunity to address persistent global health threats."

"Since our founding 25 years ago, we at IAVI have been focused on translating scientific discovery into broadly accessible solutions for global health problems. Moderna's proven, innovative platform has the potential to be a key that unlocks rapid production of vaccine and antibody candidates that could significantly accelerate our ability to solve the most difficult public health problems. IAVI's partnership with Moderna is a unique example of two organizations with complementary expertise and shared goals combining the best of our science to address urgent global public health needs," said Mark Feinberg, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of IAVI.

Within the partnership, the program furthest along in development is a Phase I clinical trial, IAVI G002, of HIV vaccine antigens being delivered by mRNA. The trial was initiated in January 2022 and is testing vaccine antigens that were originally developed as proteins by a team led by William Schief, Ph.D., professor at Scripps Research and executive director of vaccine design at IAVI's Neutralizing Antibody Center (NAC). In early 2021, Dr. Schief announced results from the IAVI G001 clinical trial, showing that an adjuvanted protein-based version of the immunogen eOD-GT8 60mer induced the desired B cell response in 97% of recipients. IAVI G002 takes this concept further: it will determine whether mRNA-encoded eOD-GT8 60mer followed by an additional mRNA-encoded immunogen induces further maturation of B cells.

This trial, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, represents the first time mRNA for HIV vaccines is evaluated in humans. Another Phase I trial is expected to begin this year in South Africa and Rwanda.