Industry-leading biotechnology company Defence Therapeutics has revealed that it will be establishing a high priority programme to develop a new HPV vaccine for cervical cancer.
Defence Therapeutics’ HPV vaccine will utilise the company’s groundbreaking AccumTM technology, which has already provided the framework for a plethora of their cancer-targeting ADC therapeutics, cancer vaccine therapeutics, and infectious disease vaccines.
The staggering prevalence of HPV
Human papillomavirus – otherwise known as HPV – is an extremely common group of viruses that can cause devastating effects. Although most people with HPV never develop symptoms or health problems, HPV infections can cause life-threatening health issues, with untreated HPV infections potentially leading to genital warts or cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, vulvar, vaginal, and penile cancer.
Currently, there are more than 40 types of HPV strains capable of affecting the genital areas, mouth and throat of both males and females, making HPV one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the US alone, 79 million Americans are currently infected with the virus, and roughly 14 million will become newly infected each year.
Sebastien Plouffe, the CEO of Defence Therapeutics, commented: “Even though current HPV vaccines produce high antibody titers, they do not protect against all types of HPV. Additional efforts are therefore required to develop more efficacious vaccines that can not only trigger a good antibody and cellular response but additionally provide an excellent memory response to ensure good long-term protection over at least 20 years post-vaccination.
“Defence’s AccumTM technology is highly versatile and can be applied to any protein for potential enhancement. AccumTM has shown from our past vaccine studies that the use of this platform can design novel protein-based vaccines that will amplify the immune response and can generate amplification in current vaccines.”
