Disease and Epidemiology:
Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Despite the presence of an approved vaccine, Yellow Fever is a major cause of disease across a total of forty-five countries in South America and Africa, and remains a major health problem in these areas with over 900 million people at risk of the disease There are an estimated 200 000 cases of yellow fever, causing 30 000 deaths, worldwide each year.
Yellow fever is initially expressed as a mild fever, but patients who enter this so-called toxic phase progress a number of symptoms including increased fever, chills, vomiting and haemorrhage, along with jaundice (hence the name yellow fever).
Our Vaccine Candidate:
Our yellow fever program will be designed to develop a vaccine that addresses the remaining unmet need associated with this disease.
Various vector constructs are ready to be put into mouse experiments to investigate the immunogenicity and efficacy of various candidate vaccines. Clinical entry will follow GMP manufacturing and toxicity studies, and is anticipated for 2011/2012. As a currently licensed Yellow fever vaccine is available, clinical trials will be using surrogate markers only, making the clinical pathway to licensure fast and cost efficient.