Bharat Biotech International Ltd in Hyderabad has started the Phase I clinical trial of Zika virus vaccine (MR 766) in two centres in India.
The Phase-I is being initiated based on the promising results in animals trials. In the animal trials, two doses of the vaccine made using an African Zika virus strain conferred 100% protection against mortality and disease in mice. The protection was the same when the mice were infected with an Asian and an African Zika strains.
While the viral load was “undetectable” in the case of vaccinated mice, the amount of virus in unvaccinated mice shot up four days after being infected. All the unvaccinated mice died eight days after infection by the African strain and 12 days after infection by the Asian strain.
