Australian healthcare group Admedus announced to the stock exchange on Thursday the results of the Phase 1 trial of Professor Frazer’s new vaccine to treat the herpes simplex virus HSV2.

Nineteen of the 20 people in the trial had produced T-cells in response against HSV2 which causes genital herpes, the announcement said.

The vaccine relies on Professor Frazer's immunotherapy technology, which he successfully used to develop a vaccine for the Human Papillomavirus, distributed as Gardasil and Cervarix.

"The clean safety profile and strong dose-dependent cellular immune responses observed, following intradermal injection of the HSV-2 vaccine in this study, were as expected with this vaccine technology,” Professor Frazer said. Amedus will now move into Phase II trial.

Around one in six Australians carry the virus that causes itchy skin lesions, up to one in four Australians aged 40-49 have the virus.

There is hope the vaccine will result in a “functional cure”, where the virus is cleared from the bloodstream, dramatically reducing the threat posed by the virus, which often lurks in the spinal cord.

Over time the trials will be extended to test whether the vaccine also works to prevent the spread of the virus but this type of study takes a long period and must involve lots of people.

The Amedus-sponsored vaccine developed at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, based at TRI also has the potential to help to reduce the amount of HPV virus in the bloodstream, thereby lowering the chances that sufferers will develop cervical cancer.

Amedus chief executive Lee Rodne said the results from the vaccine trial were encouraging.

“We will continue advancing our vaccines to treat Human Papillomarivus and cervical cancer” he said.