Chlamydia Vaccine - Product Candidate

• Disease Overview
• Product Candidate Description
• Market Opportunity and Current Treatment

Disease Overview

Chlamydia is the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease in the world. It is caused by infection with the bacterium Chlamydium trachomatis. C. trachomatis can cause urogenital disorders such as urethritis, cervicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility among females and is the leading cause of non-gonococcal urethritis and epidemiditis in males. C. trachomatis is also causes the ocular disease trachoma, which is a form of vesicular conjunctivitis. Trachoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide.

Product Candidate Description

We are developing a recombinant protein subunit chlamydia vaccine for all clinically relevant strains of C. trachomatis, including strains that cause ocular disease. We are designing our vaccine candidate to be administered by injection with a novel adjuvant in a three dose regimen. 

Market Opportunity and Current Treatment

The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 92 million new cases of C. trachomatis infection occur annually worldwide, approximately four million of which occur in North America. C. trachomatis is infections are the most commonly reported notifiable disease in the United States, with an estimated 2.8 million Americans becoming infected with C. trachomatis is each year. Epidemiological studies indicate that in the United States, C. trachomatis is infections are most prevalent among young sexually active individuals between the ages of 15 to 24 years of age. There is no vaccine currently on the market for C. trachomatis. However, screening tests and effective antibiotic treatments have been effective at containing C. trachomatis in the United States and Europe. Although C. trachomatis is infection can be treated with antibiotics, control measures based on antimicrobial treatment alone are difficult due to the incidence of infection, the percentage of asymptomatic infections and deficiencies in diagnosis. We believe that the introduction of the human papilloma virus vaccine (HPV) has made the market more receptive to the concept of adolescent immunization against sexually transmitted diseases.