Mymetics’ HIV vaccine candidate to begin study at Texas Biomedical Research Institute
Follows a successfully completed smaller study at the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science (ILAS)
Mymetics' HIV vaccine candidate will this month enter into a new preclinical trial funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Swiss biotechnology company is a pioneer in the research and development of virosome-based vaccines to prevent transmission of human infectious diseases across mucosal membranes.
Ruth Ruprecht, Scientist & Director of the Texas Biomed AIDS Research Programme, will lead the study. It follows a successfully completed smaller study at the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science (ILAS) in Beijing, China, in which a two-component vaccine protected all monkeys against repeated AIDS virus exposures from persistent infection. One of the vaccine components further showed a strong safety and tolerance profile in a Phase I clinical trial in human volunteers.
'Mymetics’ HIV vaccine candidate is unique in its design,' said Ruprecht. 'First, it uses building blocks from a special part of the HIV envelope protein, called gp41, and second, it was engineered to stop HIV from crossing the mucosal barriers – with promising initial results.
'We hope to confirm the previous findings and learn more about this vaccine’s mechanism of action in providing mucosal protection.'
The results of the new trial are expected at the end of next year.
Ronald Kempers, CEO of Mymetics, said: 'This collaboration and funding represents an important milestone and recognition of the work performed by the Mymetics team and partners over the last years and provides a basis to further develop our HIV vaccine candidate.'
