Source: Business Insider title How Synergy Pharmaceuticals’ herpes vaccine could be on hold for six months article Source 1 of 2
Hemorrhagic fever and herpes vaccine
Synergy Pharmaceutical is in the midst of a massive rebranding effort that could result in an unprecedented rebrand of the company, and could make it the first vaccine to lose money in the U.S. since the 2010 pandemic.
Synergy’s new CEO, Jeffery J. DeMaura, is expected to make his debut at the annual Vaccine Summit on April 27, where the company is set to announce a major rebrand and expand its portfolio of vaccines.
DeMasaura’s first major move was to pull the plug on its vaccine, called H1N1, which had been scheduled to go on sale in 2018.
De Masuras announcement comes after a number of vaccine makers have announced delays, including GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, both of which announced last month that they were delaying the vaccines for a total of three years.
The companies’ announcements came a day after a CDC study reported that nearly two-thirds of the U,S.
population was infected with HSV-1 and nearly half had been diagnosed with HSF2.
The study found that about 80% of those infected with the virus have had a serious reaction to the vaccine, including one-third of those who developed severe complications.
Synergy’s rebrand also comes as other vaccines have received delays and setbacks.
H1N2 vaccine:
- Synerg is expected in 2019 to announce that it will begin manufacturing its vaccine for the highly contagious strain of H1-N2, known as H3N2.
It will not be able to move forward with its original schedule because of the H3-N1 vaccine, which is still being developed.
- “H3” or H3NPV or the new H3 strain, which has a higher incidence of coronavirus than H1 and a lower incidence of severe coronaviruses than H2.
The vaccine, designed to combat the H1 virus, will contain the same molecular cocktail used to create the new strain of the virus that is being used in the H2 strain, Synergy said.
This means that if the company had used the same vaccine in the previous generation of H3, which the company did in the past, it would have produced a stronger vaccine.
However, because of its new strain, the new vaccine is expected be a less effective option against HSV2 and therefore is being scaled back.
The company said it will be introducing a vaccine targeting the other two coronavirets in the future.
The company has been in the vaccine business for a decade and has a reputation for delivering highly effective vaccines for both HSV and HSF, but the H5 and H7 strains are extremely difficult to develop.
This makes it particularly difficult for vaccine manufacturers to produce a vaccine for H2 and H3.
The company is also working to make vaccines that can be administered via nasal spray or intravenous infusion, with plans to roll out this year a vaccine that can safely be administered to infants, with no side effects.
Synerg is also aiming to produce an investigatin vaccine that could be used in combination with an oral vaccine.
The investigatin product is currently in the trials, but is expected for testing in 2021.