Vical Faced With Failure of Another Vaccine Trial

Company will focus on getting oral anti-fungal candidate VL-2397 over the finish line, after another pipeline blow-up.

Arrows miss target

Vical Inc. will have to refocus its development efforts once again, with the mid-stage trial failure of its genital herpes therapeutic vaccine VCL-HB01. The company is ceasing development of the candidate and will put that capital toward development of its novel antifungal agent.

The herpes simplex virus (HSV)-2 vaccine candidate, developed with the company's proprietary Vaxfectin adjuvant, did not meet the primary endpoint of confirmed annualized lesion rates against placebo in a Phase II study, the firm announced June 11. The news was not all that surprising given that Phase I/II results for the vaccine were mixed

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