We have been following the development of the potential vaccine from Rational Vaccines. This is the work of Dr Bill Halford’s team. (I recently spoke to their CEO on the phone.) This is an interesting vaccine, because it is different from the others currently being worked on. It is formulated in the same what as the successful chickenpox vaccine.
This vaccine was being given to volunteers in St Kitts, in the Caribbean, on a “named patient basis”.
The results of the first trial involving 17 people has gone public. Already the Daily Express has hailed ‘cure on the horizon’. However this is only a phase 1 trial, so there is a long way to go yet! (Phase II and phase III before it becomes available – at least 4 years, if all goes well.) And remember the GSK vaccine failed at phase III.
The team manager says: “This early-phase trial revealed [it] has elicited stunning reductions in herpes symptoms among trial participants. Specifically, 17 of 17 participants who received the 3-shot vaccination series indicated the live Theravax HSV-2 vaccine was more effective in reducing their genital herpes symptoms than antiviral drugs. On average, participants reported a 3.2 fold reduction in their number of herpes-symptomatic days per month” compared to taking antiviral drugs.”
We wait and see…
Marian Nicholson updated 17 October 2017
