Hepatitis

DNA vaccines for hepatitis

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections pose a significant global public-health problem and are major causes of chronic liver disease. Three to five times more people are living with chronic viral hepatitis infections than with HIV infection. In the U.S., it is estimated that as many as 5.3 million people—about 1 in every 50 people—are living with chronic HBV or HCV infections.

Current therapies are associated with significant side effects. Inovio believes a therapeutic DNA vaccine to treat HBV and/or HCV would offer physicians a powerful tool in the fight against this all-too common infectious disease. Inovio’s strategy is to advance hepatitis synthetic vaccines through multiple collaborations to fund and conduct relevant clinical studies, as shown in the table below.

Candidate	Vaccine Type	Disease Type	Target Antigens	Collaborator
INO-8000 HCV	Synthetic multi-antigen DNA vaccine	Hepatitis C virus genotypes 1a and 1b	NS3/4A, NS4B, NS5A	VGX International Inc.
ChronVac-C® HCV	DNA vaccine	Hepatitis C virus genotype 1a	NS3/4A	ChronTech Pharma AB
HBV	Synthetic multi-antigen DNA vaccine	Hepatitis B	Undisclosed	VGX International Inc.