Immunovaccine's Ebola Candidate Shows Promise
By Lori Clapper
Immunovaccine, a clinical stage vaccine company, announced it received positive results for its Ebola virus vaccine candidate in an Ebola virus challenge study performed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
In the company’s initial research, cynomolgus monkeys, which are known to be sensitive to the Ebola virus, received two doses of the DepoVax-formulated vaccine – one dose at the beginning of the study and a second dose on day 56. On day 70, the subjects were injected with a lethal dose of the wild type Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, which is believed to the most lethal strain of the disease. After more than two weeks of exposure to the virus, all vaccinated subjects survived and showed no disease symptoms. All unvaccinated control animals succumbed to the disease.
This study was designed to identify favorable vaccine candidates for further study. The NIAID wanted to test DepoVax for Ebola virus because of previous positive results with an anthrax vaccine under the same preclinical services program offered by NIAID.
Along with the potential to treat Ebola, DepoVax is currently the basis for two clinical-stage cancer immunotherapies and several partnered vaccine programs for diseases, bio-terrorism, addiction medicine, and more, according to Immunovaccine. Immunovaccine's antigen is unique in that it does not use a live virus to carry the vaccine into cells, though the company has not “disclosed the nature of its antigen,” according to Reuters.
“While the DepoVax technology is actively being developed for various infectious disease applications, this is the first time we have tested the platform as an enabling technology for an Ebola vaccine,” Marc Mansour, CEO of Immunovaccine, said in a statement. “These preliminary results are encouraging and support the continued evaluation of an Ebola vaccine in DepoVax, potentially leading to a clinical study.”
He added that the company is exploring partnerships to develop the vaccine, but would not disclose any company names. If a collaboration is made to continue development, clinical trials could begin next year.