the U.S., only 38 percent of the eligible girls and 14 percent of eligible boys received all three recommended inoculations against HPV last year, according to a national immunization survey.
Meanwhile, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control, with an estimated 6.2 million persons becoming newly infected every year. More than 80 percent of American women will contract at least one strain of HPV by age 50. In most cases, the symptoms of HPV infections go away on their own, but the virus remains, and HPV-16 and HPV-18 infections can eventually lead to cancer.
Of the estimated 12.7 million cancers occurring globally in 2008, one study estimates that about 610,000 (4.8 percent) could be attributed to HPV infection.
There is no cure for HPV infections; the vaccines are only preventative.
So HPV vaccines cannot be used to treat people after they’re infected with HPV. Hostetler said some studies even suggest that HPV vaccines lack efficacy once people become sexually active. With no antiviral therapies for HPV available, the current standard of care for HPV infections among women calls for close monitoring, frequent Pap smears, and in some cases, occasionally freezing or surgically excising abnormal tissue.
Hostetler founded Hera Therapeutics in 2012, and so far has raised $2.4 million, mostly from individual investors. He is an expert in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of antiviral drugs for poxviruses as well as for cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex, and other double stranded DNA viruses. He was previously a founder of three companies developing drugs to treat serious viral infections and cancer—San Diego-based Vical and two biotech’s in Durham, NC; Chimerix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CMRX]]) and Triangle Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Gilead in 2003 for $464 million.
The drug under development at Hera Therapeutics works by blocking viral DNA synthesis in the three HPV subtypes. Hostetler said his lab at UCSD identified HTI-1968 and other potential antiviral compounds using a new medicinal chemistry platform.
The company plans to complete pre-clinical studies over the next year or so, and wants to develop HTI-1968 as a topical treatment for chronic infections caused by HPV-16 and HPV-18. Over time these HPV subtypes produce oncoproteins that lead to cancer. But “if you could stop this virus and eliminate it” through early intervention, Hostetler said, “then nothing could happen downstream.”
