Blue Water Vaccines Announces Exploration of its VLP Platform for Use in Monkeypox Vaccine Candidate
Blue Water Vaccines Inc. recently announced the company plans to explore the potential to develop a novel monkeypox vaccine using its norovirus shell and protrusion (S&P) virus-like particle (VLP) platform.
The company’s S&P platform is currently being utilized to develop vaccine candidates across multiple diseases, including BWV-101 for influenza, BWV-301 for gastroenteritis via norovirus or rotavirus infection, and BWV-302 for malaria. In this new effort, BWV will attempt to present monkeypox antigens within the S&P platform to potentially create a vaccine candidate capable of protecting individuals against monkeypox disease.
“As monkeypox cases rise around the globe, BWV is committed to exploring the potential of our platform to create a novel monkeypox vaccine candidate,” said Joseph Hernandez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Water Vaccines. “Our VLP platform has previously demonstrated versatility across multiple infectious diseases, and we are excited to initiate this research to understand the potential to create another vaccine to fight this outbreak.”
In July 2021, Blue Water Vaccines entered an exclusive, global licensing agreement with Cincinnati Children’s to develop vaccines for multiple infectious diseases utilizing the latter’s novel virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine platform. The platform leverages norovirus capsid proteins to present foreign antigens for immune enhancement.
According to the World Health Organization, monkeypox is a virus transmitted to humans from animals, with clinical symptoms like those seen in smallpox patients. Human-to-human transmission can result from close contact with respiratory secretions, skin lesions of an infected person, or recently contaminated objects. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been about 12,000 reported cases of monkeypox in the United States between May and August 2022. There are two vaccines approved for prevention of monkeypox disease in the United States, but limited availability of either vaccine has resulted in increasing cases within the US and globally.
Blue Water Vaccines Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformational vaccines to address significant health challenges globally. Headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, the company holds the rights to proprietary technology developed at the University of Oxford, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and St. Jude Children’s Hospital. The company is developing a universal flu vaccine that will provide protection from all virulent strains in addition to licensing a novel norovirus (NoV) S&P nanoparticle versatile virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine platform from Cincinnati Children’s to develop vaccines for multiple infectious diseases, including norovirus/rotavirus and malaria, among others. Additionally, Blue Water Vaccines is developing a Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) vaccine candidate, designed to specifically prevent the highly infectious middle ear infections, known as Acute Otitis Media (AOM), in children. For more information, visit www.bluewatervaccines.com.
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