Chikungunya Vaccine Candidate Produces Safe and Stable Antibodies

A specialty vaccine company based in France announced today positive antibody persistence data one year after vaccination with a single dose of its chikungunya vaccine candidate, VLA1553.

Valneva SE's VLA1553 vaccine is currently on track to complete the rolling submission for Biologics License Application with U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of 2022.

This is important news since the FDA has not approved a chikungunya vaccine candidate as of December 5, 2022.

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease that often causes sudden large outbreaks with high attack rates, affecting up to three-quarters of the population in areas where the virus is circulating.

An infection leads to symptomatic disease in up to 97% of people after three to seven days following the mosquito bite. 

The clinical symptoms include acute onset of fever, debilitating joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea, rash, and chronic arthralgia, says the U.S. CDC.

In late 2013, the first local transmission of the chikungunya virus in the Americas was identified in Caribbean countries and territories. As of September 2020, there were more than 3 million reported cases in the Americas.

High-risk areas of infection are places where chikungunya virus-carrying mosquitos are currently endemic, including the Americas, parts of Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Most cases in the U.S. are travel-related, not locally acquired.

Additional chikungunya vaccine candidate news is posted at PrecisionVaccinations.