Vaccines and bio-therapeutic manufacturer Bharat Biotech said it was developing two candidates for vaccines for Zika infection.
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In the collaborative research agreement, University of Georgia infectious disease researchers, led by Ted Ross, PhD, director of UGA’s Center for Vaccines and Immunology, will develop vaccine antigens that elicit broadly reactive immunity against Zika viruses from different lineages and test those vaccines in preclinical models. We have two candidate vaccines in development.
Though the company has already developed two vaccines, testing them in animals as well as human trials will take a long time. The company has invested over $150 million since inception to build its portfolio of vaccines.
Zika Vaccine is the first of its kind and is of an urgent requirement in Brazil and other countries of Latin America. Dr. Guirakhoo played pivotal roles in the development and licensure of human vaccines against Flaviviruses including dengue and Japanese encephalitis.
Ultimately, developing vaccines is a question of priorities, as evidenced by a patchy pattern of protection against a range of mosquito-borne viruses over the past 80 years. No cases of the virus have been detected in India yet. This would be the world’s first vaccine for Zika.
The World Health Organisation has declared Zika and its suspected link to birth defects a global health emergency.
“In the absence of knowledge on viral pathogenesis and immune correlates required for protection, an early start in vaccine development has nevertheless provided a fair advantage to face the eventuality of an epidemic outbreak in the region”, Sumathy added.
They include NewLink Genetics, which helped develop the first successful Ebola vaccine with Merck & Co. The reason we are working, because we have been working on Chikungunya vaccine.
The deadly virus of Zika is known to be spread by the family of Aedes genus mosquitoes, which usually bite during the day and can breed in the tiniest pool of water as small as a bottle cap.
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“For most viruses, there are lots of ways to make a somewhat effective vaccine, but the most effective vaccines target several parts of the virus in different ways”, said Neuman. The person infected did not travel to the South American country county health officials said.
