Indian firm develops a vaccine for Zika virus

Viral pathogens for Zika virus strains have been sequenced by Hyderabad’s Bharat Biotech, allowing it to create two vaccine components that will enter their pre-clinical animal trial phase in two-and-a-half months, Dr Krishna Ella, its managing director, said. The company began work on the vaccine, named Zikavac, in July 2015.

Two vaccines are being developed: inactivated vaccine and recombinant vaccine. The patents were registered with the Controller-General of Patents Designs and Trademarks in July 2015.

Dr Ella said: “We were working on the chikungunya vaccine and found that in the early stages chikungunya, dengue and Zika have the same infections, which are indistinguishable. That’s why there was interest in this virus and the project was started.”

The Zika virus was first isolated in 1947 from a rhesus monkey in Uganda’s Zikaika forests. It is of the flavi virus family. From monkeys it got transmitted to mosquitoes and has now affected humans.

Scientists say Zika virus cases were found in Asia in 1950 and in 1977-78 in Pakistan. “The virus was considered a weak virus but its present strain is very virulent, that calls for emergency attention,” Dr Ella added. The company had informed the Union health ministry and the World Health Organisation about the initial development of the virus.

Bharat Biotech’s announcement came a day after France’s Sanofi said it had launched a project to develop a Zika vaccine. On Wednesday, Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceuticals also said it was investigating the possibility of developing a vaccine.