Pharmaceutical firm PowderJect is to start clinical trials of a vaccine to combat hepatitis B as part of its continuing alliance with GlaxoSmithKline.

The trial will involve 24 healthy volunteers and is designed to evaluate a range of different types of vaccination. Each volunteer will receive three doses of a DNA-based vaccine administered by the PowderJect needle-free system.

The study will then look at what sort of responses the vaccine creates, both among antibodies and in cells.