The vaccine candidate for the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, which occasionally breaks out around the world, developed by the French-Austrian pharmaceutical company Valneva, showed promising results in a sizable new trial, the researchers said on Tuesday. While the trial was conducted on individuals in the United States, where the illness is extremely rare, experts said additional research was needed despite the results being hailed as excellent news in the fight against chikungunya.
The virus, which seldom causes death but causes fever and occasionally crippling joint pain, has neither immunizations nor medicines as of yet. After submitting an application for clearance in the US and Canada, Valneva claims that its vaccine candidate, known as VLA1553, is the first to be evaluated by health authorities.
The new phase three randomized, placebo-controlled experiment sought to determine the frequency with which an immune response was elicited by the live-attenuated vaccine, which uses a weaker strain of the virus. According to a study that was published in The Lancet journal, 263 out of a subset of 266 patients who received the vaccination — or 99 percent — had antibodies that could neutralize the chikungunya virus.
According to the study, just two persons experienced severe adverse effects related to the vaccine, and both made a full recovery
The single-shot vaccination was declared “generally safe” with adverse effects comparable to previous vaccines in a larger experiment involving 4,100 healthy adults. According to the study, just two persons experienced severe adverse effects related to the vaccine, and both made a full recovery. The study’s principal author and manager of clinical strategy at Valneva, Martina Schneider, termed the findings “promising.” “This could be the first chikungunya vaccine available for people living in endemic regions, as well as for travelers to endemic areas or areas at risk for an upcoming outbreak,” she said in a statement.
As climate change forces the mosquitoes that spread chikungunya into new places, public health experts have expressed fears that the disease could pose a threat to future pandemics. The new study is “good news for chikungunya virus pandemic preparedness,” according to Kathryn Stephenson, an infectious disease specialist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in the US. Nevertheless, she added, the vaccination might be less successful in regions where chikungunya immunity has already developed.
According to the World Health Organisation, chikungunya has been reported in more than 110 countries since it was originally discovered in Tanzania in 1952. There are sporadic, severe outbreaks in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Valneva has said the US Food and Drug Administration could make a decision on approving the vaccine at the end of August.
In the second half of 2023, the biotech company aims to submit an application to the EMA, the European Union’s drug regulator. Additionally, the business is conducting vaccination trials in endemic areas of Brazil among teenagers. The Brazilian experiment and further analysis carried out during real chikungunya outbreaks, according to Stephenson, were “crucial” to proving the vaccine’s efficacy. Phase three studies are also being conducted for a chikungunya vaccine candidate produced by Bavarian Nordic in Denmark.