LONDON - Cantab Pharmaceuticals, of Cambridge, said partner SmithKline Beecham Biologicals began Phase IIb trials of TH-GW, a therapeutic vaccine for genital warts.

Two parallel randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials will take place at centers in Western Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They are designed to assess wart recurrence rates and rates of disease regression following vaccination in patients with newly diagnosed warts and patients with recurrent warts.

A previous Phase II trial of the subunit vaccine, with alum as the adjuvant, was positive. SmithKline Beecham Biologicals, of Rixensart, Belgium, has reformulated TH-GW with a proprietary adjuvant it believes will boost the immune response.

Cantab licensed TH-GW to SB Bio in July 1996 in a deal worth up to #24 million (US$37.7 million), plus royalties. - Nuala Moran