The U.S. Army has conducted clinical trials of an inactivated Zika virus vaccine on 75 human adults at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, DoD News reported Tuesday.Cheryl Pellerin writes WRAIR will test the ZPIV vaccine’s safety and capacity to trigger an immune response in the body as part of Phase 1 trials.
The Army and Defense Department funded WRAIR’s initial trials and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases served as sponsor, Pellerin reported.
NIAID also helped identify the viral strain used in ZPIV and supported WRAIR’s preclinical safety testing, DoD News said.
Rhesus monkeys vaccinated with ZPIV developed an immune response against two strains of Zika virus, according to an earlier preclinical study.
WRAIR and NIAID entered a joint research collaboration agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to support ZPIV’s development.
The Army agreed to transfer ZPIV technology to Sanofi Pasteur under a cooperative research-and-development agreement.
BARDA awarded a six-year contract to Sanofi Pasteur to further develop ZPIV toward a license.
