KBP’s Geneware product to be used in HPV vaccine development
Second-generation HPV vaccine to be produced in tobacco plants
OWENSBORO, Ky. – The University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center has licensed technology for a second-generation vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) to Advanced Cancer Therapeutics (ACT), a Louisville-based private company dedicated to bringing new anti-cancer therapies to market.
The vaccine, to be produced in tobacco plants, targets the HPV L2 protein. Vaccines currently on the market have a different target, the L1 protein. Second generation vaccines, based on the L2 protein, may provide broader immune protection against a greater number of the more than 200 strains of HPV at a lower cost than current vaccines.
The intellectual property, licensed to ACT through UofL’s Office of Technology Transfer, is based on research by associate professor Kenneth Palmer, professor A. Bennett Jenson and their colleagues. Palmer conducts research at the Owensboro Cancer Research Program (OCRP), a joint venture that Owensboro Medical Health System established with UofL in February 2006. OCRP is housed on the second floor of the Mitchell Memorial Cancer Center.
“We hope that the technology we are using to manufacture this vaccine will yield a product at a cost that will facilitate its use in resource-poor areas of the world where vaccines against HPV are most needed,” said Palmer.
“The human papillomavirus is the leading cause of cervical cancer and is increasingly being implicated in other cancers, such as those of the head and neck. As we learn more about the virus, it is becoming even more important to be able to protect people from preventable cancers by vaccinating them against this disease,” said Jenson.
In order to bring the vaccine to market quickly, ACT has also licensed exclusive rights to GENEWARE®, a technology owned by Owensboro-based Kentucky BioProcessing, LLC (KBP). GENEWARE® uses an engineered tobacco mosaic virus to carry the L2 protein into the tobacco plant, where the plant’s natural growth reproduces the protein in larger quantities, producing the vaccine’s key ingredient in a cost-effective manner.
The current vaccine, Gardasil®, costs approximately $350 for the three-dose series. According to the World Health Organization, about 80 percent of the world’s 500,000 annual cases of cervical cancer occur in developing countries, where neither routine screening nor the vaccine is available or affordable.
“Licensing these technologies together is extremely exciting,” said ACT President and CEO Randy Riggs. “We are committed to moving as quickly as possible in the further progression of this vaccine toward use in humans and are proud to be doing it with know-how developed right here in Kentucky.”
“Joining forces on this exciting project allows ACT, KBP and the Brown Cancer Center to leverage the business, scientific and intellectual property capabilities of three Kentucky-based entities to develop a solution to a very serious world health concern,” said Hugh Haydon, chairman for KBP. “We are proud to be part of this collaboration.”