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First vaccine for Lassa fever ready 'within a year'

New funding should fast track the development of vaccines to combat the world's deadliest diseases - PA
New funding should fast track the development of vaccines to combat the world's deadliest diseases - PA

A vaccine for Lassa fever could be ready for testing on human volunteers by the end of this year, scientists have said.

This will be the first time a vaccine for the disease will be tested on humans and could prove a breakthrough in developing other vaccines.

Lassa fever is endemic in west Africa and is currently ravaging parts of Nigeria. The country is facing its worst outbreak of the disease in recent years with latest official figures showing there have been more than 1000 cases including 90 deaths. However, the real figures are likely to be much higher.

The disease, which is spread by rats, causes a high fever and in severe cases, bleeding from the mouth and nose.

The vaccine is being developed by Austrian biotech firm Themis, which has been awarded $37,500,000 to develop vaccines for both Lassa fever and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which has killed 750 people since it was first identified in 2012.

The funding comes from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), set up by partners including the Wellcome Trust and the governments of Norway and Japan, to fast-track the development of vaccines against some of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases.

The coalition was launched in the wake of the Ebola epidemic in west Africa in 2014, when it became clear that there were no vaccines to combat the disease, which killed 11,000 people.

Themis has developed a vaccine technology that can be used for different diseases, described by Erich Tauber, chief executive and founder of Themis, as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

The vaccine works by manipulating genes in the virus, enabling the immune system to attack the disease. The company has already developed similar vaccines for Zika and Chikungunya diseases so is hopeful that it will be successful with Lassa fever.

Dr Tauber said the company hoped that the first trials on humans will be conducted by the end of this year. 

“The most likely pathway is that we will demonstrate safety and efficacy in healthy volunteers and then get some emergency allowance to use the vaccine in a population where there is an outbreak,” he said.

Compared to the usual process for vaccine development the vaccine will be fast-tracked, he said.

“We hope it will take about three years, rather than the decades it normally takes to develop vaccines. What we learned from the Ebola crisis is that the traditional pathway for vaccine licensing is not working,” he added.

Richard Hatchett, chief executive of CEPI, added: “Vaccine development is long, complex and challenging and of course there are no guarantees. Having multiple Lassa vaccine candidates will increase our likelihood of achieving our goal of bringing a vaccine successfully through Phase 2 clinical trials.”

CEPI has identified three priority diseases: Lassa, MERS and Nipah, a disease endemic in South Asia which causes respiratory and neurological illness.

The coalition is also hoping to fund the development of new technologies which will enable the rapid development of vaccines against new and unknown diseases.

A spokeswoman for CEPI added: “Rather than having to start the development from scratch you have a ‘plug and play’ situation where you can use these platforms to  quickly find vaccines to use against unknown diseases. It’s a concept we all know for flu - but it’s not used widely for other epidemics.”

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Find out more