UT Health Science Center San Antonio Launches Chlamydia Vaccine Study

Blue Water Vaccines (VWV) Inc. recently announced the signing of a Sponsored Research Agreement with The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio to fund a non-human primate ("NHP") study to evaluate the efficacy of BWV-401, a live attenuated, orally delivered Chlamydia vaccine candidate.

In this new effort, BWV will fund an NHP study to evaluate the efficacy of BWV-401 further and provide additional support for development towards human clinical trials.

In this upcoming study, NHPs will be vaccinated with BWV-401 and subsequently challenged against Chlamydia to validate the hypothesis that, along with being safe, this vaccine, when delivered orally, can elicit an effective immune response in the genital tract and can protect against Chlamydia infection.

BWV-401 utilizes a modified strain of Chlamydia to colonize in the gastrointestinal tract and has produced transmucosal protection against genital tract Chlamydia infection in mouse models without altering the gut microbiota.

"We are thrilled to initiate this study with our partners at UT Health Science Center San Antonio for BWV-401," said Joseph Hernandez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BWV, in a press release on April 12, 2023.

"There remains a high unmet need for an efficacious Chlamydia vaccine to prevent the millions of infections worldwide each year."

According to the U.S. CDC, Chlamydia is the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the U.S., with about 1.6 million new cases reported in 2020. 

As of April 30, 2023, no U.S. FDA-approved Chlamydia vaccines.