Over the past six months, the Zika virus has been regarded as one of the dealiest threats facing large part of the Americas and in fact, pharma companies have been scrambling among themselves in order to find a vaccine for this deadly disease that could soon reach epidemic proportions. However, no solution came to the fore immediately even though the World Health Organisation has in fact stated that the virus could end up affecting more people outside of the Americas by the end of the year 2016. It now seems that pharmaceutical company Inovio Pharma could be on to something as far as a vaccine for the Zika virus is concenred since the pharma company along with its partner GeneOne Life Sciences Inc have received approvals from the authorities in the United States to test their Zika vaccine on humans.
The first epidemic of the Zika virus had broken out in 2015 in Brazil and quickly spread to other parts of the Americas including in Mexico and Caribbean, which is why it became imperative for drug companies to find out solutions to the problem as soon as possible. The CEO of J Joseph Kim said, "We plan to dose our first subjects in the next weeks and expect to report phase I interim results later this year,"
A report on Reuters stated, "The early-stage study will enroll 40 healthy subjects and evaluate safety, tolerability and immune response generated by the vaccine GLS-5700." The report further went on to point out the sort of menace that the Zika virus outbreak could turn out to be, "In February, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika a global public health emergency. The virus has been associated with microcephaly, a birth defect characterized by an unusually small head and potential developmental problems.Last week, U.S. health officials reported three babies born with birth defects likely linked to Zika infection in the mother during pregnancy. French drugmaker Sanofi SA is likely to begin testing its own vaccine in humans next year."
