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.

• 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.