ISA104 is a combination of selected Synthetic Long Peptides (SLP®s) derived from conserved regions of hepatitis B antigens. It is designed as an effective immunotherapy for the entire patient population and avoids virus escape mutants by inducing a T cell response against multiple conserved viral antigens. The program is at the discovery stage.
ISA104 is capable of inducing an effective immune response against hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected cells by avoiding immune tolerance and viral resistance. It can be easily combined with the current standard of care and aims to induce sterilizing immunity against HBV.
Chronic carriers of HBV can develop serious liver diseases, such as chronic liver infection, liver failure and liver cancer. Current therapies are aimed at managing chronic HBV infections and halting the progression of liver disease. The two main classes used are antivirals and immune modulators, which come with severe side effects and/or therapy resistance. Currently, there is no treatment available that specifically targets HBV and/or instructs the immune system to kill the virus.
The WHO estimates that one million people die each year from hepatitis B and related diseases.