BioVex has signed a letter of intent with the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, in relation to the development of an HIV vaccine utilizing BioVex's proprietary ImmunoVEX, herpes simplex-based platform. The vaccine will incorporate a combination of VRC's HIV antigen genes aimed at maximizing the immune response to the virus.

The development of the vaccine will be governed by a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). BioVex will provide an ImmunoVEX HIV vaccine construct to the VRC, which will test the vaccine in preclinical models.

Successful immunization against HIV is likely to require the elicitation of a strong, disease-specific cellular immune response requiring the appropriate presentation of antigen on the surface of dendritic and other antigen presenting cells. ImmunoVEX's strength as a vaccine platform is based on its ability to efficiently deliver multiple antigens to dendritic cells combined with the simultaneous activation of this key class of antigen presenting cell.

The agreement highlights the potential applicability of the ImmunoVEX platform in the development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for chronic infectious disease.

ImmunoVEX is already in development as a therapeutic for the treatment of cancer.