After a Melbourne-based research team signed a development deal with drug companies CSL and Sanofi Pasteur, world's first cure for gum disease that affects almost one in three Australian adults is a step closer.

The Melbourne-based pharmaceutical company announced on Thursday that work on the vaccine had been continuing for more than a decade and it had now initiated a deal with a global vaccine maker that would initially support further and expanded research.

Scientists have also linked periodontitis, which causes gums to bleed and teeth to fall out, to a heightened risk of heart disease, dementia and cancer.

They say the boost from the drug company means that human trials of the vaccine would begin within a few years.

''You work all your life in science hoping that you can do some good, and this looks like it might actually get there,'' said the head of the vaccine project at the university, Dr Neil O'Brien-Simpson.

Dr O'Brien-Simpson and his co-investigator, Professor Eric Reynolds stated, "We knew the bacteria that was causing the disease, and we had a bit of an idea how we could target it.''

They thought of combining two molecules, a peptide and a protein, which combined to stop the bacteria sticking to gums and causing damage.

CSL is financing the program at the university to take the vaccine process ahead.

Sanofi Pasteur has obtained an exclusive worldwide licence to commercialise these products if they reach that stage.