Clinical trial firm hVIVO has signed a £13.1 million (€15.2m) contract with a ‘top five global pharmaceutical client’ to produce a human trial challenge for a new influenza B vaccine.
The trial will consist of a characterisation trial, used to determine a safe dose of the influenza virus for participants, before a potential human challenge trial, subject to positive characterisation results.
The characterisation trial will commence in Q4 2023 as the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) challenge of the drug manufacturer completes. If a healthy dose of influenza is ascertained, the full trial will take place in the first half of 2024.
hVIVO plc (formerly Open Orphan plc) is a rapidly growing specialist contract research organisation (CRO) and the world leader in testing infectious and respiratory disease vaccines and antivirals using human challenge clinical trials, providing end-to-end early clinical development services for its broad and long-standing client base of biopharma companies.