Therapeutic HBV Vaccine
Therapeutic HBV Vaccine
Background
According to the World Health Organization (WHO)1, hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world. While vaccines for preventing hepatitis B are available current treatments of the disease are not universally effective and can have unwanted side-effects. IFN-alpha treatment may clear the virus but it is effective only in a small proportion of patients. Antiviral treatments which lower the level of virus in the body are not cures of the disease. Resistance to such treatments often develops over time. Therefore the need for a more effective product to treat hepatitis B has never been greater.
In 1997 it was estimated that hepatitis B management cost the US economy alone more than $US600 million annually2. Others suggest that the US market could be greater than $US1 billion3.
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Hepatitis B Facts1
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- Over 2 billion people have been infected with hepatitis B worldwide
- More than 350 million are chronic carriers of the virus
- Chronic hepatitis B infection can cause death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer
- Complications from hepatitis B kills approximately one million people each year
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In Australia4
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- Approximately 150,000 people are chronically infected with hepatitis B
- More than 1,000 Australians die each year from hepatitis B complications
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References
1. Fact Sheet WHO/204 (Revised October 2000)
2. "New insights spark optimism at NIAID" Anthony S Fauci MD US Medicine Jan 1997.
3. www.solistherapeutics.com/research.htm
4. "Hepatitis B" CSL, April 2002
Hepatitis B Development Program Overview
Virax's hepatitis program is focused on the development of a therapy for chronic hepatitis B (HBV) using an immunotherapeutic approach. The HBV therapeutic development program utilises Virax's Co-X-GeneTM technology and fowlpox virus delivery vectors to specifically target hepatitis B.
A number of recombinant FPV vectors expressing Hepatitis B antigens and different cytokines have been constructed and demonstrated to be immunogenic in animal studies. Further development (GMP manufacturing, preclinical and toxicology studies and clinical trial) is on hold until funding becomes available.