HOOKIPA Pharma has dosed the first patient in a Phase I clinical trial of its investigational, non-replicating arenaviral HB-400 vaccine for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B.
Being developed in partnership with Gilead, HB-400 utilises an alternating two-vector approach to optimise and provide an immune response against the target antigens.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
It uses both the lymphocytic choriomeningitis and pichinde viruses with each expressing three highly conserved hepatitis B virus antigens.
The Gilead-led trial intends to evaluate the safety and tolerability of repeated doses of HB-400 in healthy individuals and participants with chronic hepatitis B.
HOOKIPA CEO Joern Aldag said: “Dosing of the first person in the Phase I clinical trial of HB-400 is an important milestone for HOOKIPA, as another programme with our novel arenaviral technology progresses to the clinic.
“More importantly, the start of the HB-400 trial is an important milestone for the hepatitis B community as hepatitis B remains an area of critical unmet need.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData“We look forward to working with Gilead to assess the potential impact of our novel arenaviral technology as part of a combination regimen for people living with the disease.”
Under a collaboration and licence agreement signed with Gilead, HOOKIPA received a non-dilutive payment of $5m and is involved in two independent development hepatitis B programmes.
The other programme is aimed at discovering a novel arenaviral vaccine for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Gilead will be solely responsible for further development and marketing of HB-400, referenced as GS-2829 and GS-6779.
