South Korea-based firm Seegene and the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), an international organisation dedicated to vaccines, will collaborate in a research study that aims to test 50,000 people in eight countries of Asia and Africa on human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, a pathogen responsible for cervical cancer and other diseases.

Seegene and IVI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the study that will utilise Seegene’s HPV diagnostic test products. 

The ’Global HPV Burden Study’ will be conducted in three Asian countries including Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, and five African countries including Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for up to five years starting from August.

These are among the countries with a high burden of cervical cancer but with relatively poor access to HPV diagnostic tests. Hence this study will measure the prevalence of 28 HPV serotypes among female populations aged 9 to 50 in each country. For those 18 to 23 years old, subjects in the study will be followed up for two years to check whether a high-risk HPV infection spontaneously resolves or becomes a persistent infection and to assess its associated risk factors.

Of more than 100 HPV serotypes, the high-risk HPV group refers to serotypes with a high risk of developing cervical cancer including HPV16, HPV18, HPV31, and HPV33. Seegene’s HPV tests (Allplex HPV28 Detection, etc.) is designed to detect 28 high- and low-risk HPV serotypes in a single test. 

IVI recently launched the Global HPV Burden Study with a $14.99 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $1 million in co-funding from the Swedish government through IVI’s European Regional Office. 

Image credit- Dr Jerome Kim, Director General of IVI (left), and Daniel Shin, Chief Global Sales & Marketing Officer at Seegene (right)