The past 40 years of fighting HIV has more than halved the number of AIDS-related deaths, bringing it down from its earlier peak as a global epidemic.

But while it is now possible to live a relatively normal life with HIV, researchers around the world are struggling to find a cure to end the AIDS epidemic that began in the 1980s.

Danish researchers have taken another important leap with a new experimental drug. The hope is that this can lead to a cure that can once and for all boost the body’s ability to suppress the HIV virus.

”We have previously successfully tested experimental treatment with antibodies on people with newly diagnosed HIV, because we believed that the effect would be greatest there,” says Danish professor Ole Schmeltz Søgaard from the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University.

”But now we have also tested a different combination of the medication on people who have had HIV for many years and have therefore been on daily medical treatment for a long time, which is a somewhat greater scientific challenge.”

Everyone with HIV still needs to take medication every day for the rest of their lives.

But researchers can now see that in some patients the experimental drug boosts the immune system to suppress the virus in the same way as if they were on daily medication.

In the latest trial, the candidate worked in a third of patients. Some have been able to go without their regular HIV medication for 1.5 years so far. The participants come from Denmark, Norway and Australia.

”If we are to find the Holy Grail and the definitive HIV cure, it should work for up to 100%. But our results clearly give us grounds for optimism,” says Schmeltz Søgaard.

The next step will be a large UK-led trial. It will be a superstructure with optimized antibodies that work even longer.

The trial is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is deeply committed to the search for an HIV cure.

”Our ultimate goal is to be able to do an intense course of treatment of about a couple of months, where people receive immune medication and then afterwards can completely stop all medication in the future,” says Ole Schmeltz Søgaard.

(Translated by DeepL with additional editing by Christian Radich Hoffman)