Preclinical herpes vaccine programs

These HSV (herpes-simplex-virus) vaccine candidates have not been tested in people. "Preclinical" means the work so far is in cell culture or animals, most often mice and guinea pigs. Animal results do not predict how a vaccine will perform in humans, and none of these entries implies a path or a date for a clinical trial.

This page last reviewed October 21, 2026. The list is built from the same records as the full tracker.

• M6 live-attenuated HSV-1 strain preclinical

  Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Kunming (Qihan Li laboratory) · HSV-1 · prophylactic · verified October 26, 2026

  Preclinical, animal studies only. A 2020 peer-reviewed paper reports that mice and rhesus macaques given M6 by intramuscular injection had no disease symptoms and lower HSV-1 DNA levels after an HSV-1 challenge, compared with unvaccinated animals. A 2025 paper studies M6 in macrophages and does not test challenge. As of the 2026-10-26 registry search, no ClinicalTrials.gov record names it.

• Prime/Pull/Keep therapeutic vaccines preclinical

  University of California, Irvine (BenMohamed laboratory) · both · therapeutic · verified October 22, 2026

  Preclinical, animal studies only. Guinea-pig studies (HSV-2) and a rabbit study (HSV-1) published 2019–2025 report fewer recurrences or less eye disease in already-infected animals. The antigens differ from paper to paper. As of the 2026-10-22 registry search, no ClinicalTrials.gov record names it.

• gG-2 vaccine (EXCT4) preclinical

  University of Gothenburg, Sahlgrenska Academy (Liljeqvist, Görander and Bergström laboratories) · HSV-2 · unclear · verified October 21, 2026

  Preclinical, animal studies only. Mouse studies from 2012 to 2026 report protection against lethal genital HSV-2 challenge. As of the 2026-10-21 registry search, no ClinicalTrials.gov record names it.

• Trivalent gC2/gD2/gE2 mRNA (UPenn) preclinical

  University of Pennsylvania (Friedman & Weissman labs); licensed to BioNTech · HSV-2 · prophylactic · verified October 21, 2026

  Academic preclinical program. Strong protection in animal models (mice, guinea pigs, non-human primates). Its clinical development is BioNTech's BNT163, now in a Phase 1 trial.

• ΔgD-2 preclinical

  Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Jacobs and Herold laboratories) · both · prophylactic · verified October 21, 2026

  Preclinical, animal studies only. Mouse studies published 2020–2023 report protection against HSV-1 and HSV-2 disease. As of the 2026-10-21 registry search, no ClinicalTrials.gov record names it.

How programs are chosen for the tracker, and how we label evidence, is set out in our methodology. Programs that have reached human trials are on the tracker.