French drugmaker Sanofi has slammed its foot on the gas since announcing the launch of Zika vaccine program a month ago.
Nicholas Jackson, who heads up the effort, said on Thursday there is now a team of more than 80 in-house experts who would start preclinical tests of a potential vaccine in animals this spring.
The first studies in humans are likely next year, subject to fast-track clearance from regulators, whose cooperation will be central in achieving the goal of shaving years off the typical decade-long process of vaccine development.
Sanofi has unique capabilities as a major vaccine producer and the first company in the world to launch a shot for dengue, a related mosquito-borne disease.
Jackson aims to piggy-back on the technology in these products for Zika, which should speed up development and offer reassurance on safety, since the basic vaccine "backbone" has already be used without a problem in millions of patients.
In total, the World Health Organization estimates at least 15 companies and academic groups are researching vaccines against Zika.
It is not yet proven that Zika actually causes microcephaly, or abnormally small heads, in babies or Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults, but evidence is growing.
Jackson said Sanofi was eager to collaborate, since it was important to try different vaccine approaches, and Sanofi itself plans to test a number of candidates.
On paper, developing a Zika vaccine should be easier than for some diseases, since the genetic code of the virus is more than 95 per cent the same across samples, in contrast to the huge variability seen, for example, in HIV.
Designing clinical trials may be complicated since pregnant women are often excluded from such tests until the safety of new drugs or vaccines is well-established.
One option could be to vaccinate girls before they are sexually active, as happens with HPV immunisation, although the benefits of this approach would take time.
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