Coridon gears up for herpes vaccine trial

Allied Healthcare Group (ASX:AHZ) subsidiary Coridon has overcome a hurdle on the way to beginning human clinical trials of its experimental herpes vaccine by signing a licensing agreement with Nature Technology Corporation (NTC) covering technology used in the vaccine.

The deal will allow Coridon to use NTC's antibiotic-free selection vectors for expression of recombinant proteins in mammalian cells.

Announcing the agreement, Allied Healthcare CEO Lee Rodne said use of the vectors can improve the benefit of vaccines by driving the in vivo transcription and translation of the genetic material.

“Access to this technology will allow the Coridon vaccine to fully maximise its gene expression and therefore improve [its] performance,” he said.

Coridon's DNA-based herpes vaccine uses the NTC8485 expression vector. This vaccine was recently shown to be 100% effective in protecting animals from herpes simplex virus 2 during a pre-clinical efficacy study.

As well as the vector technology, Coridon has been cleared to use NTC's HyperGRO fermentation technology for DNA production.

VXGI Inc, a US-based CMO specialising in the production of DNA plasmids for human clinical trials, has meanwhile been engaged to produce the Herpes vaccine using HyperGRO technology for an upcoming study. This phase I trial is scheduled to begin later in the year.

In February, Coridon revealed it is also developing a new combined HPV vaccine and treatment. This vaccine will be based on preliminary research from Coridon founder professor Ian Frazer, which also serves as the foundation for existing HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix.

Allied Healthcare Group (ASX:AHZ) shares were trading unchanged at $0.030 by 3pm on Wednesday.