Lassa Fever Vaccine March 2023

Lassa Fever Vaccine March 2023

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had not approved a Lassa fever virus (LASV) vaccine as of March 22, 2023. Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) caused by the Lassa virus. The natural reservoir for the LASV is the Mastomys natalensis rodent (African rat).

Lassa Fever Vaccine Candidates

IAVI’s IAVI C102 LASV vaccine candidate is conducting a Phase I clinical trial and is supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

ChAdOx1-Lassa-GPC is a chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine candidate encoding the Josiah strain LASV glycoprotein precursor (GPC) gene.

Inovio discontinued the development of product candidates targeting Lassa Fever (INO-4500) on November 17, 2022.

Themis Bioscience GmbH recombinant, live-attenuated, measles-vectored Lassa fever vaccine candidate (MV-LASV). MV-LASV showed an acceptable safety and tolerability profile, and immunogenicity seemed to be unaffected by pre-existing immunity against the vector.

Lassa Fever Outbreaks 2023

Lassa virus is endemic in Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, and Sierra Leone.

March 1, 2023 - The U.S. CDC issued a Watch - Level 1, Practice Usual Precautions notice regarding Nigeria's Lassa Fever outbreak.

January 30, 2023 - The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention activated the national multisectoral Emergency Operations Centre for Lassa Fever at level 2 to coordinate and strengthen ongoing response activities in the country.