The agreement for the Zika vaccine was signed by Indian Immunologicals and ICMR.
A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) has been signed by vaccine manufacturer Indian Immunologicals (IIL) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the clinical development of the country’s first codon de-optimised live-attenuated Zika vaccine.
Under the agreement, ICMR will fund the costs of Phase-I clinical trials, including costs related to the conduct, investigation, and monitoring of the clinical trials.
The trial will be conducted at ICMR network sites in India.
ICMR’s Phase I trial network, to be launched in 2023, facilitates first-in-human safety studies for innovative and affordable frontier medical technologies, including small molecules, biologics, and vaccines.
With four Phase-I sites—ACTREC-Mumbai, KEM Hospital-Mumbai, SRM-Chennai, and PGIMER-Chandigarh—becoming fully operational, Indian investigators no longer need to go abroad for Phase-I trials.
Zika is a viral infection, primarily spread by mosquitoes. There is currently no vaccine available against Zika.
