Express | Treatment of chronic hepatitis B, Tengshengbo medicine/VBI joint development of immunotherapy has positive clinical results

▎The content team editor of WuXi AppTec today, VBI Vaccines announced that the innovative immunotherapy VBI-2601 (BRII-179) jointly developed by the company and Tengsheng Biopharmaceuticals has achieved positive results in phase 1b/2a clinical trials.

This is an investigational therapy that is used in combination with other therapies to functionally cure chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

Hepatitis B is one of the most important infectious disease threats in the world, with more than 290 million infected people worldwide.

Hepatitis B virus infection is the main cause of liver disease.
Current treatment methods are difficult to cure.
Many patients will develop liver cancer.

Every year, about 900,000 people die from complications of chronic hepatitis B virus, such as liver decompensation and hepatocellular carcinoma.

VBI-2601 (BRII-179) is an innovative HBV immunotherapy based on recombinant protein.
Its design is based on a VBI-based preventive HBV vaccine candidate to enhance the immunity of B cells and T cells.

In this clinical trial, 46 non-cirrhotic patients with chronic hepatitis B were treated with nucleoside analogues (NUC) and received low-dose or high-dose VBI-2601 (BRII-179) treatment, with or without Interferon-α (IFN-α) treatment.

Image source: Data from 33 patients currently evaluated by 123RF shows that VBI-2601 (BRII-179) is well tolerated at all dose levels, and no serious adverse events have been found.

In the patient group receiving VBI-2601 (BRII-179) treatment, more than 50% of the patients (50%-78%) developed a T cell immune response against HBV surface antigen.
This is the case in the patient group receiving only NUC treatment.
The ratio is 0%.
Based on the currently observed immune response and safety characteristics, the company chose to use high-dose VBI-2601 (BRII-179), with or without IFN-α, to enter Phase 2 clinical studies, and inhibit HBV The protein expression candidate siRNAi therapy BRII-835 (VIR-2218) is used in combination to treat patients with chronic hepatitis B.

VBI has started patient screening in New Zealand in March this year.

Tengshengbo Pharmaceutical will launch this research in countries and regions including China, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and other countries and regions in the second and third quarters of this year.

Reference: [1] VBI Vaccines Announces Phase 1b/2a Data and Progress of Hepatitis B Immunotherapeutic Candidate.
Retrieved April 12, 2021, from -Announces-Phase-1b2a-Data-and-Progress-of-Hepatitis-B-Immunotherapeutic-Candidate%C2%A0 Note: This article aims to introduce the progress of medical and health research, not a treatment plan recommendation.

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