Patent granted for a therapeutic vaccine against Hepatitis C

A patent in this field has been granted to the CIGB claiming the combination of a DNA with an antigen to improve the immune response against HCV.

(PRWEB) August 13, 2003 -- The Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) from Havana, Cuba, has made encouraging advances in the research and development of a therapeutic vaccine for HCV. A patent in this field has been granted to the CIGB claiming the combination of a DNA with an antigen to improve the immune response against HCV. CIGBs results evidence the potential of this vaccine combination to induce a functional cellular immune response.

Moreover, the immunogenicity of the DNA vaccine candidate observed in rabbit and small primates is an encouraging element for its evaluation in human with prophylactic and/or therapeutic purposes. After a clinical trial phase I in healthy volunteers in the second semester of 2003, a therapeutic clinical trial phase I/II in HCV patients with the new vaccine formulations should be conducted by the end of year 2004. Two years more should be required for the conclusion of the phase III.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, there are 170 millions people infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Infection with HCV is chronic in more than 80% of infected persons. At present, there is not available prophylactic vaccine against this disease and most research is in pre-clinical phase. Antiviral treatments against HCV are aggressive, expensive and generally effective in less than 50% of cases.

Competitive advantages of the CIGB to perform this project are: more than 15 years experience in vaccine research and development, highly skilled staff and self-reliant laboratories. The CIGB is looking for corporate partnership for joint development and clinical trials, because a strategic alliance would speed up this project. The project Development of therapeutic vaccine against Hepatitis C virus" has been included in a project portfolio along with other 18 biomedical projects and published in the web site http://gndp.cigb.edu.cu, to facilitate the access of the medical community, companies and research institutions to the most up to date R& D results at CIGB.

For information: http://gndp.cigb.edu.cu or http://www.cigb.edu.cu
Contact: ernesto.lopez@cigb.edu.cu
Phone : (53-7) 2712397.