Another startup company focusing on an HSV vaccine

[MikeHerp]

Not sure if this has been posted before.

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/new-startup-biotech-company-plans-to-test-promising-herpes-vaccine-for-both-hsv-1-and-hsv-2/

[Cas9]

9 hours ago, MikeHerp said:

Not sure if this has been posted before.

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/new-startup-biotech-company-plans-to-test-promising-herpes-vaccine-for-both-hsv-1-and-hsv-2/

Yes, it has been posted. Also, if you look at their pipeline  https://www.excellbio.io/pipeline
they state the following:

" Excell Biotech is setting out to clinically test a Herpes vaccine which may be also a possible
therapeutic intervention in humans. For 30 years, vaccines against Herpes have failed. Research groups have tried subunit vaccines
repeatedly and failed. New data indicates that glycoprotein D acts as a decoy, so the immune system is not able to
form an effective antibody response to other antigens. Without glycoprotein D, Herpes is visible
to the immune system and is also unable to spread between cells. "

 

Note that their approach is the same as X-VAX, the company used by Einstein.  Like X-VAX, Excel Bio is also in Florida. I contacted someone at X-VAX and inquired about this company. The response was as follows:

 

I am not familiar with this company, and their website does not mention any gene deletions.

X-VAX has an exclusive and worldwide license of the ∆gD-2 technology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

 

Best regards,

Andreas

---------------------------------------------

 

Andreas is wrong when he says their website does not involve gD deletion, as we can see in the above text from the pipeline page.  Not sure what's going on with Excel Bio given that Andreas stated X_VAX has an exclusive and worldwide license of the ∆gD-2 technology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
 

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by Cas9

[MikeHerp]

20 hours ago, Cas9 said:

Yes, it has been posted. Also, if you look at their pipeline  https://www.excellbio.io/pipeline
they state the following:

" Excell Biotech is setting out to clinically test a Herpes vaccine which may be also a possible
therapeutic intervention in humans. For 30 years, vaccines against Herpes have failed. Research groups have tried subunit vaccines
repeatedly and failed. New data indicates that glycoprotein D acts as a decoy, so the immune system is not able to
form an effective antibody response to other antigens. Without glycoprotein D, Herpes is visible
to the immune system and is also unable to spread between cells. "

 

Note that their approach is the same as X-VAX, the company used by Einstein.  Like X-VAX, Excel Bio is also in Florida. I contacted someone at X-VAX and inquired about this company. The response was as follows:

 

I am not familiar with this company, and their website does not mention any gene deletions.

X-VAX has an exclusive and worldwide license of the ∆gD-2 technology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

 

Best regards,

Andreas

---------------------------------------------

 

Andreas is wrong when he says their website does not involve gD deletion, as we can see in the above text from the pipeline page.  Not sure what's going on with Excel Bio given that Andreas stated X_VAX has an exclusive and worldwide license of the ∆gD-2 technology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
 

 

Interesting.  Thanks for letting me know (and sorry for reposting already posted info).

Frankly, though, I did notice that they were also going for a glycoproteign D deleted vaccine.  Which makes me wonder about the IP issues vis-a-vis X-Vax.  I hope the two companies don't end up in some IP dispute.

Well, from the big picture perspective, it's also encouraging that there might be copy cats.  Generally, most people aren't interested in copying a bad idea, so maybe this is some sign that Jacobs and Team are really onto something with their approach.  Just my thoughts.  

[Forest]

Thanks Mike and Cas9 for your valuable insights as always.

My humble non scientific take is that both of these companies are totally different on their approaches. X_VAX is based on a sub unit approach which is more of a synthetic vaccin approach and the Excel Bio is based on a live attenuated virus which is not a sub unit vaccin. Both approaches are aiming to expose hidden properties of the virus for the immune system to go after. Nobody has a patent on the hidden properties of the virus.  Again, Andreas may be right that they have a patent on a sub unit way to expose those properties. But this Excel Bio may not be affected by the global patent issued because they are using a live attenuated virus approach to expose the hidden properties of the virus. This is a completely different approach. Please do not hesitate to step in and challenge my take on this issue. This is just my humble non scientific assessment.

Again, great post . Mike no worries about duplicating these posts. I was not aware of them. Lot of the new members also may have not been aware of them so thanks to you and Cas9 for your valuable insights.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Forest

[Cas9]

5 hours ago, Forest said:

Thanks Mike and Cas9 for your valuable insights as always.

My humble non scientific take is that both of these companies are totally different on their approaches. X_VAX is based on a sub unit approach which is more of a synthetic vaccin approach and the Excel Bio is based on a live attenuated virus which is not a sub unit vaccin. Both approaches are aiming to expose hidden properties of the virus for the immune system to go after. Nobody has a patent on the hidden properties of the virus.  Again, Andreas may be right that they have a patent on a sub unit way to expose those properties. But this Excel Bio may not be affected by the global patent issued because they are using a live attenuated virus approach to expose the hidden properties of the virus. This is a completely different approach. Please do not hesitate to step in and challenge my take on this issue. This is just my humble non scientific assessment.

Again, great post . Mike no worries about duplicating these posts. I was not aware of them. Lot of the new members also may have not been aware of them so thanks to you and Cas9 for your valuable insights.

Thanks for your input Forest. None of us are scientists; we all learn from each other. I did some checking and X-VAX is using a live attenuated vaccine. From their website:

"We call our ‘live’ vaccine ∆gD-2 (delta gD-2), because it is based on an HSV-2 virus genetically deleted for glycoprotein D (gD-2). With it, we have been able to prevent infections caused by herpes type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) in multiple preclinical models—with very impressive results. "

Also, if you go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex_research
you'll see the vaccine X-VAX is working on; it's HSV-2 ΔgD-2 from Einstein College, and you'll note the vaccine type is:
Live-attenuated HSV-2 vaccine with US6 (gD) deleted

[MikeHerp]

X-Vax is definitely using a live attenuated virus.