Acambis is the only company successfully to construct chimeric vaccines against all four dengue virus serotypes and to demonstrate in advanced pre-clinical trials that these four vaccines, administered together as a tetravalent vaccine, induce high levels of protective antibodies against all four serotypes.
Our initial step in undertaking clinical trials was to test one of the four chimeric vaccines that we developed, and results from this Phase I trial were reported in November 2002.
The 56-subject trials tested the safety and immunogenicity of the ChimeriVax-DEN2 component in healthy adult volunteers. Preliminary findings from the trial showed 100% of subjects developed neutralising antibodies to the homologous dengue 2 virus serotype within one month of vaccination and 96% developed neutralising antibodies to a wild-type dengue 2 virus. There were no serious adverse events.
Following completion of the Phase 1 trial of a tetravalent formulation of our ChimeriVax-Dengue in the first quarter of 2005, the lead responsibility for further clinical testing and development passed during 2005 to sanofi pasteur (SP), to whom we have licensed worldwide rights. Results from the trial showed seroconversion to all four dengue virus serotypes. SP has progressed the vaccine into Phase 2 clinical trials.
The project is funded by sanofi pasteur and through a grant contribution from the US National Institutes of Health.
