Biotech Unveils Drug for Viral Infections Tied to Cervical Cancer

HPV Human Papillomavirus cervical cancer

A small San Diego biotech has identified a drug that appears to prevent several subtypes of the human papillomavirus (HPV) from replicating—including the two HPV subtypes that cause 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer.

“It’s early, so we shouldn’t hype it too much. But the antiviral studies look pretty good,” said Karl Hostetler, an emeritus professor of medicine at UC San Diego, and the founding CEO of Hera Therapeutics. The two-year-old startup has been incubating in the Janssen Labs life sciences accelerator in San Diego.

Research findings being presented in Seattle this weekend during the 29th Annual International Papillomavirus Conference show that HTI-1968, a small molecule discovered in Hostetler’s lab, blocked the replication of HPV-11, HPV-16, and HPV-18 in cultured human cell models. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded the studies, which were done by Louise Chow and Thomas Broker at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

If the early results hold up, Hera Therapeutics could potentially become the first biotech to develop a direct-acting antiviral therapy for HPV. (The drug would be applied topically to the skin, Hostetler said.) But that’s a big “if”—and a number of biopharmaceutical rivals are already in clinical trials with immunotherapy products to treat HPV infections or HPV-related cancers, including Pennsylvania’s Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: [[ticker:INO]]).

Two HPV vaccines also have been commercially available for years. The FDA approved Merck’s Gardasil in 2006, and authorized additional uses three years later. The agency also approved GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix in 2009.

Both HPV vaccines are designed to trigger the production of antibodies that are keyed to neutralize specific types of HPV (more than 40 subtypes can infect the genital area), including HPV 16 and HPV 18, the subtypes responsible for 70 percent of all cervical cancers—and that are also associated with cancers of the vulva, vagina, penis, anus, and throat.

You might think that would end the matter, in much the same way that vaccines halted the spread of polio and eradicated smallpox. But in

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.