Sanofi Pasteur launches Zika vaccine R&D
pharmafile | February 2, 2016 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development | Sanofi Pasteur, Vaccine, Zika virus
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of French pharma giant Sanofi, says it has launched a vaccine research and development project aiming to stop the spread of the Zika virus.
Having debated the outbreak at an Emergency Committee yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a global public health emergency, having previously warned Zika is spreading “explosively” and that four million people could be affected by the end of the year.
A link has been established between infection with Zika, and cases of microcephaly, which causes infants to be born with underdeveloped brains.
That Zika spread by mosquitos in a similar fashion to such viruses as Dengue fever could be an advantage to Sanofi Pasteur as it seeks to steal a march on the competition in developing an effective virus. The French company- named for Louis Pasteur, the creator of the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax, says it “leads the vaccine field for viruses in the same family as Zika virus (ZIKV),” and boasts experience in this area, having already successfully licensed vaccines against Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis and, most recently, Dengue.
The company says it will take advantage of its established R&D and industrial infrastructure for the newly licensed Dengvaxia, which can be “rapidly leveraged” to help understand the spread of Zika and help speed identification of a suitable vaccine candidate for development.
ZIKV is closely related to Dengue; in that it belongs to the same Flavivirus genus, and is spread by the same species of mosquito- Aedes aegypti.
“Our invaluable collaborations with scientific and public health experts, both globally and in the regions affected by the outbreaks of ZIKV, together with the mobilisation of our best experts will expedite efforts to research and develop a vaccine for this disease,” says Dr John Shiver, global head of R&D, Sanofi Pasteur.
“Sanofi Pasteur is responding to the global call to action to develop a Zika vaccine given the disease’s rapid spread and possible medical complications,” says Dr Nicholas Jackson, global head of research for Sanofi Pasteur, who will be driving the new ZIKV vaccine project. “In addition to the serious possibility of congenital complications associated with Zika, investigations are also underway to assess another reported connection between Zika and a dangerous neurological disorder.”
The rapid spread of ZIKV has taken the international community by surprise. The virus was until recently considered rare and benign. However in May 2015, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an alert regarding the first confirmed ZIKV infection in Brazil, and it has since spread across the Americas.
In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have issued recommendations for pregnant women to postpone travel to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.
Since there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment for Zika, vector control (the eradication of creatures responsible for spreading the disease) remains an important means of potentially controlling the escalating Zika crisis.
Joel Levy
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