Vaccine Info

Avacc 11 Gonorrhea Vaccine

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Staff
Last reviewed
June 28, 2023
Fact checked by
Robert Carlson, MD
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Avacc 11® Gonorrhea Vaccine 2023

Intravacc's Avacc 11® (NGoXIM) is the prophylactic intranasal gonorrhea candidate vaccine being developed in partnership with Therapyx Inc. This vaccine candidate consists of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) and microsphere (ms)-encapsulated interleukin-12 (IL-12 ms) induced Th1-driven immunity, with circulating and genital antibodies to Neisseria gonorrhoeae, after intravaginal (i.vag.) administration.

Since intranasal immunization has previously been shown to induce antibody responses in both male and female genital tracts, the companies evaluated this route of immunization with gonococcal OMVs plus IL-12 ms. The administration is not a practical means of delivery. It is inapplicable to males and may not be acceptable to women. The Company's proprietary OMV platform-based gonorrhea vaccine candidate, combined with encapsulated IL-12, showed protection against subsequent infection with Neisseria gonorrhea (NG). Results were published in the peer-reviewed journal MSphere of the American Society of Microbiology on December 20, 2022.

In October 2022, Intravacc was awarded a $14.6 Million NIH/NIAID contract to develop this intranasal candidate gonorrhea vaccine further. In December 2023, mSphere published: Microencapsulated IL-12 Drives Genital Tract Immune Responses to Intranasal Gonococcal Outer Membrane Vesicle Vaccine and Induces Resistance to Vaginal Infection with Diverse Strains of Neisseria Gonorrhea. And in January 2023, the Company announced preclinical data of Avacc 11® demonstrated protection against gonorrhea infection.

Intravacc, located at Utrecht Science Park Bilthoven in the Netherlands, is a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization for infectious diseases and therapeutic vaccines. Therapyx is a privately held pharmaceutical company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. 

Avacc 11® Indication

Avacc 11 is being developed to prevent infection with NG (i.e., gonorrhea). Gonorrhea remains highly prevalent, with an estimated 87 million new infections yearly. In the United States, incidence increased by 66% from 2014 to 2018, exceeding 580,000 reported cases in 2018, although the actual incidence is believed to be even greater. N. gonorrhoeae is listed by the WHO as an "urgent threat" among human pathogens because of the emergence of resistance to currently available antibiotics, and cases of extreme resistance have been reported.

Avacc 11® Vaccine News 2023

January 16, 2023 - Dr. Jan Groen, Intravacc's CEO, says: "Together with our partner Therapyx, we are very pleased with the preclinical data of the intranasal candidate vaccine Avacc 11®. This intranasal gonococcal vaccine is more suitable to fight gonorrhea infections, which are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotic treatments.

October 5, 2022 –  Intravacc announced that it had been awarded a contract with base and options that may total US$14.6 million from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop a prophylactic intranasal vaccine against NG. Intravacc will develop a prophylactic vaccine based on its proprietary OMV platform technology.

Avacc 11® Clinical Trials

This candidate is currently being studied in mice. These study results show that i.n. immuImmunizationh gonococcal OMVs plus IL-12 ms as an adjuvant is at least as effective as i.vag. immunImmunization of the same vaccine in mice.

Clinical Trials

No clinical trials found