Has India Developed the First Zika Virus Vaccine?

The Zika virus has been called a pandemic — an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across the globe.
What’s worse is that with every passing day, and every new case, researchers don’t seem to be any closer to a vaccine against the virus, whose symptoms manifest in only one of five people infected. Luckily, all that could be changing — Indian biotechnology firm Bharat Biotech looks set to be first to market with not one, but two vaccine candidates.

Zika virus concerns

Most adults who have contracted the Zika virus will show no symptoms. Those who do get sick can expect a mild fever or a red rash, but symptoms should subside within a few days.

That might sound harmless, but the Zika virus is definitely a problem. The main concern when it comes to the Zika virus is the role it might play in a serious neurological birth defect known as microcephaly, in which babies are born with tiny brains. Despite not having been officially confirmed, the rise in microcephaly cases in Brazil has jumped alongside the number of recorded cases of the Zika virus.

Zika virus vaccine

Bharat Biotech began working on a Zika virus vaccine nine months ago, giving it a leg up in the race to develop a vaccine to manage what the World Health Organization has dubbed a “global health emergency.”
The company has developed not one, but two vaccine candidates: a recombinant vaccine and an inactivated vaccine.
“The formulated inactivated vaccine is expected to elicit a strong antibody response as we see humoral immunity offering a primary defense against Zika infection,” Bharat Biotech Managing Director Krishna Ella has said.
According to the company, it could make the inactivated vaccine available in two years if the Indian government were to fast track regulatory approvals once pre-clinical trials prove the vaccine is successful. Ella has explained that the normal process for a vaccine to get commercialized approvals would take about seven years, including clinical trials.
Pre-clinical trials on animals are expected to start in the near term, and should take about five months. Following that, the vaccine would need to be tested on humans.

Clinical trials on pregnant women

But while progress is being made on vaccine development, the ethical question of vaccinating pregnant women — a group of people normally excluded from experimental trials — has been raised.
According to Mike Turner, head of immuno-biology at the Wellcome Trust, it is a “practical and ethical nightmare” to test a vaccine on pregnant women. The situation is even more dificult due to the fact that most people infected with the Zika virus show no symptoms.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, explained that a vaccine would need to be tested on adult non-pregnant populations before moving on to pregnant women. “Ideally you’d do catch-up vaccinations of women of reproductive age as you do with rubella but the problem is that Zika is marching so quickly through the western hemisphere. You may not have a vaccinated cohort for a couple of years,” he said.

Race to the finish line for vaccines

While the ethics of testing on pregnant women are weighed, and Bharat’s vaccines move into pre-clinical trials, it is worth noting that other companies are also joining in the rush to develop a vaccine for the Zika virus.
Among them are Sanofi (NYSE:SNY), Takeda Pharmaceuticals (TSE:4502), GeneOne Life Science (KSE:011000), Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INO) and  GlazoSmithKline (LSE:GSK). What’s left is to see which company can do it first.
 
Securities Disclosure: I, Vivien Diniz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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