Janssen and Bavarian Nordic to develop new HPV vaccine

Janssen has announced a new collaboration with Bavarian Nordic to create a new vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV).

The collaboration and licence agreement will leverage Bavarian Nordic's MVA-BN technology and Janssen's own AdVac technology to create a heterologous prime-boost vaccine for the treatment of chronic HPV infections that can lead to cancer.

Under the terms of this agreement, Janssen will conduct all clinical development and, subject to regulatory approval, will be responsible for registration, distribution and commercialisation of the potential combination vaccine worldwide.

The prime-boost approach is similar to that used in Janssen's developmental Ebola vaccine, which has been shown to induce a strong and longer-lasting immune response, demonstrated by both increased antibodies and T cell responses.

Dr Johan Van Hoof, global head of infectious diseases and vaccines at Janssen, said: "We are bringing together our technology with that of Bavarian Nordic to develop a potentially first-in-class HPV vaccine, which could advance human health by reducing the number of new cancer cases and associated deaths."

This comes after Janssen absorbed Novira Therapeutics earlier this month following the completion of parent company Johnson and Johnson's takeover of the firm.