Prokarium gets funding from SynbiCITE to develop chlamydia vaccine

Prokarium has received new funding from SynbiCITE, the UK’s Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Synthetic Biology, that will enable it to complete preclinical development of an innovative chlamydia vaccine.

The vaccine could enter clinical trials in 2017.

With 92 million new cases of Chlamydia worldwide and over 200,000 new cases in the UK per year, Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the world. Symptoms can be serious including pelvic inflammatory disease that can lead to infertility and, in children infected by their mothers, even blindness.

New chlamydia vaccine uses synthetic biology

According to Dr Ted Fjällman, CEO of Prokarium, “The new vaccine uses synthetic biology to make the first safe and effective Chlamydia vaccine since the 1960s when conventional methods revealed unacceptable side effects and clinical efforts were abandoned. We have produced a carrier in the form of a re-engineered strain of Salmonella containing the blueprint for the vaccine. It will be taken orally and as it enters through the person’s gut lining it is naturally engulfed by the body’s own immune cells and only then triggered to produce the active vaccine exactly where it is needed and without side effects in other parts of the body. This is a uniquely suitable solution and has already raised interest from big pharmaceutical companies.”

Dr Steve Chambers, CEO of SynbiCITE, explained that the new Prokarium vaccine was selected for funding because “the need for a Chlamydia vaccine is significant and the potential for this approach both for Chlamydia and as a model for treating other infections in the medium-term is very encouraging.”

A National Chlamydia Screening Programme report shows NHS spending of £45 per person on screening for Chlamydia and it is expected that a mass vaccination programme for 10-14 year olds would cost significantly less.