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We hope to make a significant contribution to the eradication of HIV infections

Dec 01, 2015
Wim Parys
Wim Parys
Vice President, R&D Global Public Health

Finding an HIV vaccine is one of the major medical challenges of the moment. This is an extremely difficult task, but one to which we are committed.

Wim Parys

From the moment HIV emerged and it was revealed that it was caused by a virus, a Janssen team started the search for a treatment. Our organization started working together with the Rega Institute of the KULeuven in 1987, and this resulted in a first publication on the discovery of NNRTIs, a new class of HIV inhibitors, in 1990. We discovered various active substances, but the knowledge of HIV was not yet sufficiently developed and we were not yet aware that the virus was able to mutate rapidly, as a result of which the effectiveness of the substances we had found in preventing the multiplication of the virus was very short-lived. That was over 20 years ago. We had developed drugs that worked, but when the patients' blood samples were examined again 2 weeks after the start of the treatment, it was found that the virus had become resistant, and was once more able to multiply uninhibitedly.

That is how we came to the conclusion that only a combination therapy would be able to suppress the HIV virus in the long run. Since then, Janssen has developed three medicines that reach approximately 500,000 patients in all stages of the disease worldwide. Thanks to effective treatments to keep the disease under control, HIV is fortunately no longer a death sentence, but a chronic disease. At the start of the epidemic, the life expectancy of a person with an HIV infection was about 2 years. As a result of the research efforts, this is currently no longer the case: if someone infected with HIV takes the correct combination therapy on a daily basis, HIV is no longer a fatal infection. Taking medicines every day is not an ideal situation, however. It is therefore important that the combination therapy consists of as few pills as possible, preferably only 1 per day, and this is what our Janssen Global Public Health group is working towards. We are also exploring a very innovative new approach, in which the drugs only have to be administered once every 2 months through long-acting injections. It remains extremely important to continue to consider HIV treatment in an innovative manner. Under the guidance of the International Partnership for Microbicides, one of our substances is also being studied as a microbicidal agent in a vaginal ring. The phase 3 studies will very soon be completed, and we are hopeful that this approach will give women a way to avoid infection.

But even such preventive or therapeutic innovations alone are not sufficient. We must work together to make treatment available to all people who are living with HIV. Expanding access to HIV treatment is a top priority for the Janssen Global Public Health group. More than 36 million people are currently living with HIV, and a majority of them, usually people living in countries with low and medium incomes, still don't have access to treatment. We therefore consider the broadening of access to treatment in areas with limited means to be absolutely crucial.  

A new report in The Lancet reports on a significant decrease in the number of infections in children. However, new infections are still not falling rapidly enough. The best solution would be a vaccine that prevents the infection. This is an extremely difficult task, but one to which we are committed. Finding an HIV vaccine is one of the major medical challenges of the moment. Scientists have already been searching for a vaccine for more than twenty years, and Janssen wants to reach that milestone. Our Dutch site in Leiden is at the forefront of this research. Eleven years ago, they started work on the development of an HIV vaccine, together with a scientific group at Harvard. We still have years to go, but the initial results are very promising, and we are clearly playing a leading role in the research. Our hope of being able to eradicate the disease at some point is therefore justified.