The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new report to guide vaccine developers when creating innovative vaccines to treat human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in adults.
Currently the main cause of cervical cancer – the fourth most common cancer in women globally – HPV is a very common group of viruses that leads to cervical cancer in more than nine out of every ten cases.
Despite already-existing WHO-prequalified vaccines, including Merck & Co’s – known as MSD outside the US and Canada – Gardasil 9 (HPV 9-valent, recombinant) and GSK’s Cervarix (HPV bivalent (types 16, 18) vaccine, recombinant), to prevent HPV infections, there are currently no vaccines that can treat them.
However, new therapeutic vaccines are being developed using the latest immunotherapy advances to clear HPV or treat precancerous cells in people already exposed to the virus.
The WHO Preferred Product Characteristics for Therapeutic HPV Vaccines report calls on developers and outlines how they can ensure that their products meet global public health needs and how to quickly roll out vaccines if approved, while considering medical indications for potential use of such a vaccine, target populations, safety and efficacy criteria, as well as practical considerations such as delivery strategy, storage and dosage schedules, and affordability.
Currently, there are more than 20 therapeutic HPV vaccine candidates that are at different stages of development, with several in clinical trials, that are likely to be most beneficial for adult women who did not receive the HPV vaccination prior to contracting the virus.
In addition, these new potential therapeutic vaccines align with WHO’s Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative, which aims to vaccinate 90% of girls with preventive HPV vaccines, screen 70% of women with a high-performance test and treat 90% of women who have precancerous cells in the cervix or cervical cancer by 2030.
Dr Sami Gottlieb, medical doctor and epidemiologist, department of sexual and reproductive health and research, WHO, commented: “Therapeutic HPV vaccines could be a catalytic innovation to complement these efforts, increasing options for the millions of women who have already acquired HPV and reducing their risks of developing life-threatening cancer in the future.”