A new Cincinnati company is on a mission to make flu season healthier.
At least, that’s what Cincinnati startup Blue Water Vaccines hopes will be the outcome of the clinical trials for its universal flu vaccine. The first-of-its-kind vaccine incorporates groundbreaking research and mathematical models from Oxford University to achieve one simple yet monumental goal: a two-dose vaccine that provides life-long protection against all strains of influenza.
Given last year’s flu shot was only 29 percent effective — not to mention over 1 billion people catch the flu annually (with up to 500,000 cases resulting in death) — it’s obvious the current flu shot could use some work. Today’s vaccine targets regions of the flu virus that are highly variable. The vaccine is updated and administered annually, but given the variability, creating the “right” vaccine for each flu season is, simply put, a shot in the dark.
“When you look at the great medical needs of our time, the influenza vaccine is one of the few areas where there hasn’t been a whole lot of advancements,” said Joseph Hernandez, founder of Blue Water Vaccines. “It’s quite archaic, and then you top it off with the ineffectiveness of the current vaccine. There’s a major need for technological improvements.”
Blue Water Vaccines hopes to change this epidemic. With molecular biologist and entrepreneur Hernandez at the helm, Blue Water Vaccines is turning flu immunization on its head based on revolutionary research from Oxford University. The company is still in pretrial stages, but so far, the tests are proving positive. So positive, in fact, that CincyTech led a $7 million dollar round of seed financing.
Impressed by Blue Water Vaccines’ approach, Oxford University Innovation also granted Hernandez exclusive rights to this vaccine. A multidisciplinary team of Oxford University researchers theorized that “the epidemic behavior of influenza is primarily determined by immune responses acting upon regions of the virus that are limited in variability,” according to a press release. Hernandez’s universal vaccine is the first and only vaccine to put this theory into action — and he’s doing so in Cincinnati.
“I have family in the area and I’ve been coming here for 27 years,” he said. “I know the area well, and I’m commuting back all the time now.”
Blue Water Vaccines is Hernandez’s first venture into the world of vaccines, but he’s hardly a health industry novice. Hernandez founded numerous biotech companies, including Innovative Biosensors (based in Rockland, Maryland) and the New York-based biopharmaceutical company Microlin Bio. Blue Water Vaccines will be this Connecticut resident’s first venture in the Queen City; he’ll partner with CincyTech throughout the process. Blue Water Vaccines will also run a lab in Oxford, England.
“The holy grail of vaccines” as Dr. Samuel Lee, a principal at CincyTech, described it, will move into another preclinical test soon. Hernandez will use the additional capital to finance the vaccine’s phase I trial in the UK in 2020.
