The dl5-29 vaccine is an HSV-2 strain from which two genes have been deleted, making the virus incapable of replication or of establishing latent infection. Acambis holds an exclusive worldwide license under Harvard’s patent rights to manufacture and sell the vaccine.
Pre-clinical studies with dl5-29 have shown that the replication defective vaccine: induces strong HSV-2-specific antibody and T-cell responses, can protect against challenge with a wild-type HSV-2 virus, greatly reduces the severity of recurrent disease, provides cross-protection against HSV-1, and is unable to revert to a virulent state or to become latent.
Ian Garland, CEO of Acambis, said: “This is an exciting addition to Acambis’s increasingly broad pipeline and is part of our strategy to deliver one IND submission a year. This is a very attractive program for a major vaccine market with limited competition and we are delighted to have licensed this Harvard Medical School technology.”