The hepatitis C virus, or HCV, causes a chronic liver infection that can lead to permanent liver scarring and, in dire cases, cancer. It affects around 71 million people worldwide and causes approximately 400,000 deaths each year. While treatments are available for HCV-related infections, they are expensive, hard to access and do not protect against reinfection. A vaccine that can help prevent HCV infection is a major unmet medical and public health need.
One major reason there hasn’t been an HCV vaccine yet is that scientists have yet to identify the proper antigen, or the part of the virus would trigger a protective immune response in the body.
