Canada-US group targets Zika vaccine by year-end

This week, GlaxoSmithKline Plc also said it was concluding studies to check whether its technology is suitable for the virus. In Brazil, since the virus was first reported around the beginning of the summer, there have been more than 4000 suspected cases of microcephaly. If the vaccine proves to be safe and effective, it could be used in the following months if health officials decide that there is a public health emergency. With an expanding portfolio of immune therapies, the company is advancing a growing preclinical and clinical stage product pipeline.

Fauci said that vaccine was never developed because a drug company partner could not be found, but he did not see this as an issue for Zika.

Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals closed yesterday at $5.37. The stock surged as the company announced that it is entering clinical trials for its MERS vaccine, which appears to hold promise in targeting the Zika virus.

“Our broad experience with DNA-based immunotherapies and with MERS specifically suggests we can potentially make an important contribution to developing such a solution”.

Canadian scientist Gary Kobinger, who helped develop a trial vaccine that was successful in fighting Ebola, is part of a consortium working on a Zika vaccine that could be ready for emergency use before the end of the year.

A vaccine for that Zika virus, that has been associated with serious birth defects in a large number of babies, might be prepared for disaster use before year end, among its guide builders stated on Friday, a plan well in front of quotes by U.S. authorities.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that Zika is spreading “explosively” and could affect as many as four million people in the Americas. “It may be cranked in really a brief time”.

“Secondly, a live attenuated vaccine, building on similar and highly immunogenic approaches used for the closely related dengue virus”, he added. It researches and develops DNA vaccines to prevent and treat incurable diseases in South Korea and internationally. These vaccines shorten the development process by producing a synthetic DNA sequence in the laboratory, which harnesses the human body itself to develop certain antigens from the killed viruses.