MVA-BNŽ polytope against HIV

[MitchMiller]

Bavarian Nordic A/S announced today that the company has initiated a Phase I and a Phase I/II clinical study in Europe with MVA-BNŽ polytope vaccine against HIV. The vaccine was recently released from the company’s facility in Berlin for use in clinical trials. The purpose of these studies is to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in healthy and HIV-infected subjects. Results from both studies are expected in the second half of 2007.

MVA-BNŽ polytope is the second of the company’s three vaccine candidates to enter clinical trials. It is being developed as both a prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine, and thus is more advanced than MVA nef, which is being developed by Bavarian Nordic as a therapeutic vaccine only.

The MVA-BNŽ polytope vaccine only encodes for small regions of the HIV proteins that have been shown to stimulate a strong T-cell response in people infected with HIV. As such, this vaccine has been designed to generate a broad immune response to many of the HIV proteins, making this a potent vaccine strategy to fight against HIV.

Bavarian Nordic is currently preparing the filing of an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Under this IND two additional Phase II studies with MVA-BNŽ polytope are expected to start in the US in the first half of 2007. Both studies will be funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

According to the WHO, approximately 40 million people are living with HIV, of which almost 3 million people die every year from AIDS-related complications. It is estimated that around 4 million people are infected with HIV every year. More than 95% of all new infections occur in developing countries, making HIV among the most serious threat not only to global health, but to global development.

[J220]

Everyt time I hear news like this it brightness my day...wheels are in motion...! Thanks for posting that Mitch.