Date: 2011-04-18
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: novel therapeutic vaccination strategy against genotype 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV)
Company: Inovio Pharmaceuticals (USA) Transgene (France) ChronTech Pharma (Sweden)
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
Type agreement: R&D collaboration
Action mechanism:
Disease: hepatitis C
Details: Inovio Pharmaceuticals has signed a collaboration agreement with Transgene and ChronTech Pharma AB to evaluate a novel therapeutic vaccination strategy against genotype 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) in a phase I clinical study. In this collaboration, the strategy is to use different prime and boost vaccines with the goal of obtaining a clinical effect by inducing different immune responses. A Phase I study, to be started later this year, will use ChronTech’s ChronVac-C® plasmid DNA vaccine delivered by in vivo electroporation using Inovio’s Medpulser® DDS as the “prime” and Transgene’s therapeutic vaccine TG4040, a modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), as the “boost”.
Financial terms:
Latest news: In this collaboration, ChronTech’s ChronVac-C® DNA vaccine consists of a codon-optimized NS3/4A gene. It is delivered using Inovio’s MedPulser® electroporation DNA Delivery System. Inovio's electroporation-based DNA delivery systems dramatically increase cellular uptake of a DNA vaccine and resulting gene expression (i.e. production of the coded protein) and increase immune responses by 100 times or more compared to plasmid DNA delivered without other delivery enhancements. Transgene’s TG4040 product candidate is based on an MVA virus carrying and expressing non-structural proteins NS3, NS4 and NS5B of hepatitis C virus. The ChronVac-C DNA vaccine was recently reported to be safe and generate antigen specific immune responses and antiviral effects in a phase I/IIa clinical trial. Rapid virologic responses were seen in 5 out of 7 of the patients receiving a post-vaccination standard of care interferon-ribavirin therapy. TG4040 was itself shown to be safe and immunogenic in a phase I program. Phase II studies in combination with the standard of care are ongoing for both products. In preclinical studies, the novel combination of these DNA and MVA vaccine approaches demonstrated greater immune responses than those observed with the vaccines injected separately.
