Synthetic Dual-action Vaccines

U.S. and Canadian researchers have developed a technique to produce fully synthetic vaccines and have mouse data showing the prevention of candidiasis, a range of oral, vaginal and systemic yeast infections.¹ Although a candidiasis vaccine would have limited commercial prospects, Wellstat Therapeutics Inc. says the data provide proof of concept for the technology. The company has in-licensed relevant facets of the synthetic vaccine technology and has used it to move vaccines into preclinical development for other pathogens.

Although the next academic step is to test scaled-up versions of the researchers' vaccine, one question for drug developers will be whether the technique can be applied to more complex pathogens...