Hepatitis C vaccine could be ready in 5 years, Nobel Prize winner says

Sir Michael Houghton, who won a Nobel Prize last year for his part in discovering the hepatitis C virus, said during a presentation at the ECCMID virtual meeting recently that an HCV vaccine could be ready within 5 years.

Globally, there are up to 2 million new HCV cases and approximately 400,000 deaths due to the virus annually, according to ECCMID. Moreover, most of the 7 million people who carry HCV are not diagnosed.

“While the advent of directly acting antivirals to cure hepatitis C has given us a huge weapon to turn the tide on this pandemic, there is no doubt that a vaccine is required to help the world reach its ambitious target of reducing new hepatitis C infections by 90% and mortality rates by 65% by 2030," Houghton, who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine with two other scientists, said in a news release.

Houghton and colleagues at the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute at the University of Alberta are developing an adjuvanted recombinant vaccine, which he said could be rolled out to immunize people who inject drugs by 2026 or 2027, if proven to be safe and effective.

“Following phase 3 trials, the hepatitis C vaccine could then be rolled out to other high-risk groups in or around 2029, such as men who have sex with men, health care workers, and babies born to mothers with hepatitis C, in all countries of the world,” Houghton said.

He said the vaccine could save close to a billion dollars compared with the cost of treatment.