Firm working on vaccine to treat HFMD

GEORGE TOWN: A Malaysia-based biotech company is set to develop a vaccine in eight years for the EV71 virus, which causes the infectious and potentially fatal hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD).

The company embarking on this ambitious task is Sentinext Therapeutics Sdn Bhd with its laboratory in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang.

Its chief scientific officer Prof Dr Jane Cardosa said there was currently no vaccine or anti-viral agent to prevent or treat EV71 infection.

She added that the lab had found a vaccine candidate and was going through pre-clinical tests.

“Hopefully after 18 months, we can move to Phase 1 where we will test its safety on humans followed by efficacy trials (Phase 2). If the vaccine is taken up when it is (fully) developed, children can be protected from EV71, HFMD and some other diseases,” she said at a media briefing in USM yesterday.

“However, we won’t see the end of HFMD as it can still be caused by other viruses.”

The 59-year-old professor retired as Universiti Sarawak Malaysia Institute of Health and Community Medicine director in late August and is now a visiting professor at USM.

The vaccine being developed by Sentinext Therapeutics is a significant breakthrough because the EV71 virus has been consistently causing outbreaks of HFMD in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Prof Cardosa said the Singapore government had funded a company to research and develop a vaccine for the virus but it ceased operations after running out of funds.

The China government has also invested in a similar project but has a different approach from what Prof Cardosa’s lab is doing.

“Our vaccine is formulated from empty capsids to mimic the virus particle but there is no genome. So, it is not infectious,” she said.

Sentinext Therapeutics received a RM40mil fund from the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund and Malaysian Technology Development Corp.

Besides developing and researching a vaccine for EV71, the company is also looking at vaccines for other tropical infectious diseases like malaria and dengue.