KOREAN BIOTECH DEVELOPING HIV VACCINE

Korea-based Curocom is partnering with Canada's University of Western Ontario to develop an HIV vaccine that could be available for therapeutic use within three years and for use as a preventive vaccine within the next six years, according to the university.

The vaccine has been proven to stimulate protective immune responses in animals. It is based on the production of virus-like particles known as pseudovirions to produce protective immune responses. Curocom is currently outsourcing the manufacturing of the vaccine to Advanced BioScience Laboratories to prepare the vaccine for human clinical trials.

Curocom and the university currently hold patents for the vaccine, some of only a few HIV vaccine patents ever issued, in both the U.S. and under the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, the university said.

Curocom Canada has also initiated a program to develop a hepatitis C vaccine.