ImmunoVEXHSV2
Our lead infectious disease product candidate is ImmunoVEXHSV2, a vaccine for genital herpes.
A Phase 1 study commenced in February 2010.
The Phase 1 study is an open label ascending dose trial, assessing safety and immune response in healthy volunteers. The study is taking place in the UK at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London and will involve up to 42 already identified subjects.
ImmunoVEXHSV2 is based on a proprietary engineered form of the causative agent of genital herpes, HSV-2, from which genes that collectively interfere with the functions of immune system have been deleted. The proteins encoded by these genes aid wild type HSV-2 in evading the body’s immune system.
ImmunoVEXHSV2 expresses all but four of the approximately 80 HSV-2 proteins, maximizing the breadth of the anti-HSV immune response generated, but without the genes encoding for these immune-inhibiting proteins.
ImmunoVEXHSV2 has been evaluated in the industry-standard preclinical model of genital herpes, in which it completely prevented disease, suggesting that ImmunoVEXHSV2 may be more potent in humans than other HSV-2 vaccines for which published data is available. The vaccine also considerably reduced the level of viral shedding following exposure, which if this translates to the clinical setting, may also reduce any window of infectivity from an infected individual.
About Genital Herpes
At least 45 million people over the age of 11 in the United States have been infected with HSV-2, the causative agent of genital herpes, the rate of infection having increased approximately 30% between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition to classical genital lesions, patients with compromised immune systems may experience more severe, systemic complications, including in some cases cystitis, urethritis, cervicitis and meningitis. According to research reported in Biomed Central’s journal BMC Infectious Diseases, the economic burden of genital HSV infection and resulting complications has been estimated to be greater than $1 billion annually in the United States alone.
