Current status of global Zika virus vaccine development

Yang Eun-Jeong, Yoo Jung-Sik, Kim Sung Soon
Division of Vaccine Research, Center for Infectious Diseases Research, KNIH, KCDC

BACKGROUND: Zika virus (ZIKV) was identified in 1947 from a Rhesus monkey in the Zika Forest of Uganda. After its introduction into Brazil in 2015, ZIKV has spread out rapidly and in February 2016 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The rapid development of a safe and effective ZIKV vaccine is a global health priority, but there are no licensed vaccines for ZIKV. However, several organizations are actively developing vaccines using various platforms and technologies.
PRESENT: The Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R), a network of funders of emergency outbreak research, coordinates researches on Zika through working groups on vaccines. Under the guidance of these institutes, vaccine candidates for ZIKV have recently been developed and multiple vaccine platforms including recombinant live attenuated vaccines, purified inactivated vaccines (PIVs), DNA/mRNA vaccines, and viral vectored vaccines have been shown to protect non-human primates or human against ZIKV infection. DNA-based ZIKV vaccine (GLS-5700, VRC ZIKV DNA) and whole-particle inactivated vaccine (ZPIV) candidates developed and is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial.
PROSPECTIVE FUTURE: The first clinical trials of Zika virus vaccine candidates began in Q3/4 2016 but the pathway to licensure for a Zika virus vaccine is expected to take several years. Efforts are ongoing to accelerate Zika virus vaccine development and evaluation with the ultimate goal of reducing time to licensure.