Biotech startup develops live herpes vaccine

Rational Vaccines (RVx), after 20 years of pre-clinical trials, has developed a class of live vaccines for herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2.

Affecting some four billion people globally, HSV-1 and HSV-2 have become one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. A team lead by RVx's William Halford, PhD, an Associate Professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, has developed a live vaccine to stop the spread and improve the current treatment for herpes patients.

"I've talked to hundreds of herpes sufferers who say genital herpes has destroyed their lives, and left them isolated. Making matters worse, many doctors tell patients, 'Herpes is no big deal,'" said Halford. "But ... herpes is a major cause of blindness, neonatal mortality, life-threatening encephalitis and, aside from emotional isolation and pain, leaves genital herpes sufferers three times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS. This is a major global health issue, and the time to act is now."

RVx’s live HSV-1 and HSV-2 ICP0^- mutant vaccines have been tested in pre-clinical trials to be a safer and more effective than conventional herpes treatments. RVx has finished the construction of a Phase I trial of the vaccine that will test the treatment for HSV-2 and to verify its safety and to improve the immune control of the disease. The Profavax vaccine, which resembles the real virus, is being developed to protect those without herpes.

"The safety of live HSV ICP0^- mutant vaccines is far better understood than any live viral vaccine currently administered to children, such as the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine," Halford said. "These live HSV vaccines establish a self-limited infection at the immunization site that quickly resolves and leaves the body's immune system prepared to fight off real HSV-1 or HSV-2 viruses."