Completed Infection & Immunity Digestion, Kidneys & Other Organs

An Oral Zika Vaccine

Funder InnovateUK (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Iosbio LTD
Funding £2.4M
Period Feb 2018 — Apr 2021

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A single oral capsule could one day replace the needle for Zika virus vaccination, delivering a heat-stable vaccine directly to the gut. Current Zika vaccines require cold-chain storage and injection, which is expensive and impractical in many regions where the virus spreads. This project addresses that gap by developing a capsule that can survive at room temperature and still trigger a protective immune response. In earlier phase 1 work, the company Stabilitech showed that a viral vector delivered to the gastrointestinal tract produced Zika-specific antibodies and protected animals from live virus challenge. In this phase 2 programme, the team will optimise how the virus is grown in culture and how the capsule releases its contents in the digestive tract. They will then produce GMP-grade vaccine batches under contract, run the required safety and immunology tests, and assemble a clinical trial application package. If successful, the result will be a vaccine ready for small-scale human trials—no needles, no refrigeration, just a capsule swallowed like any other pill.

View original technical description
“During the Phase 1 Innovate UK funded programme Stabilitech demonstrated that a thermally stabilised oral capsule delivering a vaccine-inducing viral vector to the gastrointestinal tract can stimulating systemic immunity. In these studies, the viral vector was designed to transduce expression of Zika virus antigens, giving rise to specific antibodies providing protective response from live virus challenge in preclinical models. During the Phase 2 programme Stabilitech will further develop this novel Zika virus vaccine to First-in-Human ready. Within this development phase Stabilitech will optimise viral yields from culture and in vitro (dissolution) release characteristics of the capsule in the alimentary canal, with protective efficacy indication following viral challenge. Once optimisation has been performed Stabilitech will prepare under CDMO contract GMP (engineering and production) lots of the vaccine, perform non-clinical immunological and safety testing requirements as provided in the guidance provided in CPMP/SWP/465/95. The overall aim by the end of the proposed program of work, is a CTA ready package to facility small scale human clinical trials.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Related Research

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Original classification

Small Business Research Initiative

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.