In the latest setback to Vical/Astellas partnership, lead CMV vaccine fails a pivotal PhIII study
When Vical’s lead vaccine flopped in a Phase II herpes study in 2016, the biotech and its partners at Astellas switched focus to a pivotal Phase III trial in hemotopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Today, the partners say that too has failed.
The cytomegalovirus vaccine ASP0113 is designed to induce an immune response against the CMV virus with the encoded CMV phosphoprotein 65 and glycoprotein B antigens. The DNA vaccine failed both the primary composite endpoint and the secondary endpoints: the former being overall mortality and CMV end-organ disease through the first year following the transplant; the latter measured time to first CMV viremia and time to first use of adjudicated CMV-specific antiviral therapy.
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