The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio has signed a sponsored research agreement with Blue Water Vaccines Inc. that will fund a primate study to evaluate the efficacy of BWV-401, a live attenuated, orally delivered Chlamydia vaccine.

The deal follow’s November’s exclusive, global license agreement Blue Water signed with UTHSC to develop the novel vaccine candidate.

BWV-401 utilizes a modified strain of Chlamydia to colonize in the gastrointestinal tract and has produced transmucosal protection against genital tract Chlamydia infection in mouse models without altering the gut microbiota. The new agreement will expand those studies to primates, with an eye towards human clinical trials.

In this upcoming study, non-human primates will be vaccinated with BWV-401 and subsequently challenged against Chlamydia to validate safety as well as efficacy of oral administration.

“We are thrilled to initiate this study with our partners at UT Health Science Center San Antonio for BWV-401,” said Joseph Hernandez, chairman and CEO Blue Water Vaccines. “There remains a high unmet need for an efficacious Chlamydia vaccine to prevent the millions of infections seen around the world each year. We look forward to completing this study and moving one step closer towards clinical development of this novel vaccine.”

Currently, there is no vaccine available to prevent Chlamydia infection, and the main treatment is through antibiotic regimens with the possibility of reinfection after antibiotics have treated the disease. If undetected or left untreated, Chlamydia represents a major cause of pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility in women.

Source: GlobeNewswire