With potentially devastating Zika virus spreading in more than 50 countries, including the United States, a Seattle global health firm has received nearly $500,000 to rapidly develop a new type of vaccine to fight it.
Scientists at the Infectious Disease Research Institute have been awarded a two-year, $491,000 grant to create an RNA-based vaccine candidate that uses genetic information from the virus itself to kick-start an immune response.
“It’s a way of hijacking the virus’ own machinery to express proteins to make a safe and effective vaccine,” said Dan Stinchcomb, the institute’s senior vice president for vaccine development viral disease programs.
The award, announced recently by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, follows an urgent call by the National Institutes of Health earlier this year for research targeting all aspects of the virus now known to cause severe birth defects and neurological problems. Dozens of firms have launched efforts to develop Zika vaccines, and NIH and vaccine maker Inovio Pharmaceuticals are now conducting clinical trials with their early candidate.
Part of the motivation is protecting public health: A vaccine could halt the once-unknown virus that exploded across Brazil starting last year and quickly spread to other countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond.
In the continental U.S., more than 3,800 cases of Zika infections have been reported. More than 100 cases have been spread by local mosquitoes in Florida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 12 cases of Guillain-Barr? syndrome, which causes muscle weakness and paralysis, have been reported. Washington has reported 46 Zika infections, all in people who traveled to places where the virus is spreading.
Profit is also a motivation. A Zika vaccine for even a portion of U.S. travelers could conservatively generate more than $1 billion a year, Joseph Kim, chief executive for Inovio told the Reuters news agency.
Stinchcomb and senior scientist Neal van Hoeven said the grant will help them jump-start the research.
“Other approaches will beat us to the clinic,” Stinchcomb said. “We have the long-term goal to create a vaccine that’s relatively inexpensive and can last a long time.”
Stinchcomb, who joined the Seattle institute in April, is the former president and chief executive of Inviragen, which was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. in 2013 after development of DENVax, a vaccine to prevent dengue virus.
