Blue Water Vaccines Inc. (NASDAQ: BWV) reported that the company plans to explore potential development of a novel monkeypox vaccine using its norovirus shell and protrusion virus-like particle platform. The S&P platform is currently being utilized to develop vaccine candidates across multiple diseases that include BWV-101 for influenza, BWV-301 for gastroenteritis via norovirus or rotavirus infection, and BWV-302 for malaria. BWV will attempt to present monkeypox antigens within the S&P platform to potentially create a vaccine candidate capable of protecting individuals against monkeypox disease.
“As monkeypox cases rise around the globe, BWV is committed to exploring the potential of our platform to create a novel monkeypox vaccine candidate,” said Joseph Hernandez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Water Vaccines. “Our VLP platform has previously demonstrated versatility across multiple infectious diseases, and we are excited to initiate this research to understand the potential to create another vaccine to fight this outbreak.”
According to the World Health Organization, monkeypox is a virus transmitted to humans from animals, with clinical symptoms like those seen in smallpox patients. Human-to-human transmission can result from close contact with respiratory secretions, skin lesions of an infected person, or recently contaminated objects. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been about 12,000 reported cases of monkeypox in the United States between May and August 2022. There are two vaccines approved for prevention of monkeypox disease in the United States, but limited availability of either vaccine has resulted in increasing cases within the US and globally.