US firm says experimental Zika vaccine works in mice

A biologist works with cell of Aedes mosquito in the laboratory of Biology from University of Campinas (UNICAMP), in Campinas, Brazil, February 11, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON -- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, a small US drugmaker, said Wednesday that its experimental vaccine for the Zika virus can induce robust and durable immune responses in mice.

Inovio said in a statement that it will next test the vaccine in non-human primates and plans to initiate phase I human testing before the end of 2016.

"Using our ... technology, we rapidly generated a synthetic vaccine candidate that shows promise as a preventive and treatment," Joseph Kim, President and CEO of Inovio, said in the statement.

Inovio, which is based in the US state of Pennsylvania, is developing its Zika vaccine with GeneOne Life Sciences from the Republic of Korea and academic collaborators.

Zika virus belongs to the flavivirus family, which includes dengue and West Nile virus.

Inovio said its Zika program builds on its extensive previous preclinical development experience with dengue and West Nile vaccine candidates.

In the preclinical study, Inovio's Zika DNA vaccine resulted in the development of detectable specific antibodies in the blood in all vaccinated mice, the company said.

Researchers also observed that vaccination generated robust and broad responses from T cells, which play an important role in clearing Zika virus infection.

Although no vaccine or therapy currently exists for the Zika virus, the landscape in the field is rapidly evolving.

The World Health Organization said last week around 15 pharmaceutical companies have commenced work related to Zika vaccine development, but it cautioned that such vaccines are at least 18 months away from any large-scale trials.