Moderna says the first doses have been administered in a trial of an HIV vaccine that uses mRNA technology, which is also used in its COVID-19 vaccine.
"We believe that mRNA offers a unique opportunity to address critical unmet public health needs around the world," said Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna.
Moderna teamed up with International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a nonprofit organization, to develop the shot.
The company says the vaccine is designed to teach the body how to trigger an immune response to the virus.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 38 million people are living with HIV across the world.
"We are tremendously excited to be advancing this new direction in HIV vaccine design with Moderna's mRNA platform. The search for an HIV vaccine has been long and challenging, and having new tools in terms of immunogens and platforms could be the key to making rapid progress toward an urgently needed, effective HIV vaccine," said Dr. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of IAVI.
The trial was funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as CNN reported, and will track 56 HIV-negative adults to study the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
