On April 18, 2022 Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Osaka, Japan; President & CEO: Isao Teshirogi, Ph.D.; hereafter "Shionogi") and NEC Corporation (Head Office: Tokyo, Japan; President & CEO: Takayuki Morita; hereafter "NEC"), reported the execution of a strategic research collaboration agreement for the development of a novel hepatitis B therapeutic vaccine (Press release, NEC, APR 18, 2022, View Source [SID1234612393]). NEC OncoImmunity (Head Office: Oslo, Norway, CEO: Richard Stratford Ph.D.), an NEC subsidiary that specializes in artificial intelligence-driven biotechnology, is also participating in this research collaboration.

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Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver disease caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Chronic infection with HBV results in a high risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer. About 300 million people are living with chronic hepatitis B infection worldwide, and hepatitis B resulted in an estimated 820,000 deaths in 20191. Although the widespread use of hepatitis B vaccines in infants has considerably reduced the incidence of new chronic HBV infections under the age of 5, the number of new infections by other routes continues to increase2.

Interferon (IFN) and nucleotide analog therapy are currently used in the treatment of hepatitis B. However, treatment with IFN has a high frequency of side effects, and nucleotide analog therapy has a high recurrence rate if treatment is interrupted, so it is necessary to take drugs for a lifetime3. Therefore, the unmet medical need for safe and highly effective drugs that can finally achieve a complete cure for hepatitis B is high.