NIAID-DVI: Dengue subunit vaccine -- Beth-Ann Coller

Blog Series: NIAID-DVI

Development update - recombinant subunit dengue vaccine

Beth-Ann Coller

Merck & Co., Inc.

So Merck decide to nix the use of the whole genome and opted for focusing in on the Envelope gene; 80% of it.

The current status per the meeting abstract:

• Preclinical studies of this recombinant subunit vaccine have been conducted in non-human primates in order to evaluate immunogenicity and efficacy of tetravalent formulations
• They are doing testing with and without adjuvant
• The formulations have been evaluated in both dengue naive and experienced animals.
• The work has shown that recombinant proteins can induce balanced tetravelent responses without evidence of interference.
• They are in Phase 1 clinical trials with the vaccine in healthy flavivirus naive adults.

So I had one potentially naive question in this presentation which of course I kept to myself because it was a lively bunch and I feared for my life at times given I secretly harbor a copy of immunology for dummies book...