Fledgling French biotech touts success of new hep C vaccine
A fledgling French biotech which is reportedly being snapped up by an unidentified U.S. drug developer finds itself in the spotlight this morning. Epixis holds the rights to an experimental hepatitis C vaccine which scientists say was able to combat a variety of hepatitis C viruses in animals by spawning neutralizing antibodes--a new approach in the hep C vaccine field.
Up to now, reports Reuters Ben Hirschler, various biotechs in the field have been using a T-cell approach to guard against hepatitis C. But Epixis and the researchers testing the vaccine believe they have a superior technology.
"For a preventative vaccine, neutralizing antibodies are absolutely essential, and for a therapeutic product they would also be a big advantage," researcher David Klatzmann told Reuters .
Charlotte Dalba, the CEO of the largely unknown Epixis, says that the company hopes to launch human trials next year, provided the money is available. If they're successful, Epixis--or whichever developer is acquiring it--will be advancing a rival vaccine to programs being pushed by France's Transgene and Austria's Intercell, which has been plagued with clinical setbacks recently.
As Reuters notes, the demand for a hepatitis C vaccine would largely be in the developing world--not a market that most big drug developers find commercially appealing. But Dendreon and Merck have both produced new treatments which are expected to earn billions. Roughly 130 million to 170 million people suffer from chronic hepatitis C.
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Scientists a step closer to Hepatitis C vaccine | Latest news ...
PARIS: European scientists say they have successfully tested in animals a vaccine for hepatitis C, a contagious and debilitating virus that can cause liver failure and cancer.
Currently, there is no human vaccine for hepatitis C (HCV), which is spread through contaminated blood and kills some 350,000 people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organisation.
Around 170 million people are estimated to be living with chronic disease caused by the virus.
At least 10 million of them are illegal drug users who have contracted HCV by sharing needles or other drug paraphernalia, a recent study has shown.
“Without rapid intervention to contain the spread of the disease, the death rate from hepatitis C is estimated to surpass that from AIDS in the next century,” the researchers warn.
Unlike hepatitis A or B, most people infected with HCV cannot shake off the virus on their own because, when under attack by the immune system, it morphs into stronger variants.
The body is unable to produce enough “neutralising antibodies,” the only kind able to handling a broad array of mutations.
But in the case of HCV, using the classic technique of making a vaccine from a weakened or inactive form of the virus — which works well in inducing such antibodies — is too dangerous due to potential side-effects and the risk of infection.
As an alternative strategy, a team led by French researcher David Klatzmann of the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris used so-called “virus-like particles” to create the vaccine, which was tested on mice and monkeys.
Virus-like particles provoke an immune reaction, helping the body to develop resistance, but do not contain any genetic material that would allow a “virus” to multiply.
“Once injected into the body, the virus-like particles have the capacity to trigger neutralising antibodies that could protect a person if they are exposed to the virus,” the researchers said in a statement.
This technique has already been used in other vaccines, notably for the human papillomavirus, also a cancer-causing agent.
The new vaccine, developed in partnership with French start-up Epixis, worked against five different variants of HCV, offering hope that it would also beat back mutations as they occurred.
The results were published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The next step will be to conduct human trials, which could start as early as next year.
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Tiny French biotech touts success of new hep C vaccine: A fledgling French biotech which is reportedly being sna... 
Tiny French biotech touts success of new hep C vaccine: "For a preventative vaccine, neutralizing antibodies are... 
Tiny French biotech touts success of new hep C vaccine: A fledgling French biotech which is reportedly being sna... 
Tiny French biotech touts success of new hep C vaccine: A fledgling French biotech which is reportedly being sna... Hep A Vaccine - Bookshelf
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