Genocea Biosciences Inc. is holding out hope that Phase II data from genital herpes patients treated with GEN-003 for 12 months will give the therapeutic vaccine a market advantage, and while the commercial potential is unclear given the mixed data the company reported on March 31, its stock price soared on the clinical trial update for its sole clinical drug candidate.
GEN-003 showed somewhat sustained viral shedding rates and one of the vaccine doses generated a lesion-free rate for herpes patients that was comparable to the efficacy of currently available oral antiviral medicines after one year of treatment. However, the data picture is incomplete, since the placebo-controlled analysis ended after the first month of the study
