Tri-Antigenic Hepatitis B Vaccine Elicits Significant Immunity

A pair of phase 3 head-to-head trials found that tri-antigenic hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine (TAV) is capable of faster anti-hepatitis B titers versus mono-antigenic HBV vaccine (MAV) across all observed patient populations.

The summarization of findings from the CONSTANT and PROTECT trials, presented at IDWeek 2020, found the investigative TAV agent Sci-B-Vac from VBI Vaccines could provide up to eight-fold greater titers than standard MAV prophylaxes, and could potentially better cement global population prevention of HBV.

Now, the company intends to submit application materials to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on the merit of these findings. Currently, 2 billion people worldwide have or previously had HBV infection—indicating a need for more and greater vaccine options.

In an interview with Contagion® during IDWeek, presenting study author Joanne Langley, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology, Dalhousie University, discussed the importance of improved prevention of HBV.

“There still is a huge population that has never had the chance to be immunized against hepatitis B: adults who didn’t benefit from children’s programs, or whose immunogenicity is reduced because they don’t respond as we like to currently available vaccines,” she explained.

Langley went on to share details and significant outcomes from the IDWeek poster, which compared the couple of head-to-head phase 3 assessments of Sci-B-Vac versus MAV vaccines.

Listen to the full interview with Langley in the video above.

The poster, “Higher hepatitis B antibody titres induced in all adults vaccinated with a tri-antigenic hepatitis B (HBV) vaccine, compared to a mono-antigenic HBV vaccine: results from two pivotal phase 3 double-blind, randomized studies (PROTECT and CONSTANT),” was presented at IDWeek 2020.