Indian Immunologicals, ICMR ink pact for Zika vaccine

ICMR D-G Rajiv Bahl and Indian Immunologicals MD K. Anand Kumar at the signing of MoA for clinical development of Zika vaccine.

Vaccine maker Indian Immunologicals (IIL) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) for clinical development of the country’s first codon de-optimised live attenuated Zika vaccine.

ICMR will be funding phase I clinical trial costs, including those relating to the conduct, investigations and monitoring of clinical trial under the agreement. The trial will be conducted at the ICMR network sites in India, IIL said in a release on Thursday.

ICMR’s phase I trial network, launched last year, facilitates first-in-human safety studies for innovative and affordable frontier medtech, including small molecules, biologics and vaccines. With four phase-I sites — ACTREC-Mumbai, KEM Hospital-Mumbai, SRM-Chennai and PGIMER-Chandigarh — fully operational, Indian innovators no longer need to go abroad for phase-I trials, D-G of ICMR Rajiv Bahl said.

IIL has partnered with Griffith University, Australia, to develop the codon de-optimised live attenuated Zika vaccine, which has completed extensive pre-clinical evaluations and received permission from Indian regulatory authority to produce GMP grade materials for clinical developmental work.

The company is working on developing vaccines for several neglected emerging diseases. The list includes Zika, Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), Chikungunya and a SARS-CoV-2 intra-nasal booster vaccine, IIL deputy MD Priyabrata Pattnaik said.

A viral infection, Zika is mostly a mosquito-borne disease. Currently there is no vaccine available against Zika, IIL said.