The hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship brings a new focus to efforts to develop a vaccine to prevent the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Experts say hantavirus vaccine efforts have repeatedly stalled, in part because outbreaks tend to occur sporadically and disproportionately affect poorer countries where there is less incentive for drugmakers to invest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur funding agencies don\u2019t put a lot of money into this, because it\u2019s likely not to cause the next epidemic or pandemic,\u201d said Sabra Klein, a professor in the molecular microbiology and immunology department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. \u201cBut these are hemorrhagic fever viruses, so when they occur, they\u2019re scary, and they do wreak havoc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The founders of EnsiliTech, a U.K.-based biotech company, began work on the vaccine 15 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe looked at hantavirus and saw it was pretty neglected,\u201d said Matt Slade, a company co-founder and its chief of staff. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t really any work in the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EnsiliTech\u2019 vaccine relies on messenger RNA technology, the same platform used to develop the Covid shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vaccine targets a hantavirus strain known as hantaan virus, which is primarily found in East Asia and can cause internal bleeding and kidney damage, technically referred to as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slade said part of the reason the development process has taken so long is that scientists have been working to make sure the vaccine could be transported at room temperature. The Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines had to be transported at very cold temperatures, a requirement that complicated the global rollout of the shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EnsiliTech developed a method called \u201censilication,\u201d which encases the mRNA in a protective silica cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slade said the vaccine hasn\u2019t yet entered human testing, estimating it could take three to four more years before early-stage clinical trials. The company has successfully done trials in rodents, which are the source of transmission to humans. He didn\u2019t rule out developing another vaccine that targets the Andes strain, the strain responsible for the cruise ship outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without the kind of support seen with Operation Warp Speed \u2014 the U.S. initiative during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term that fast-tracked the Covid vaccines \u2014 it is likely to take five more years to complete Phase 2 and 3 trials. Slade said he is aware of a couple of other hantavirus vaccines that are also in the preclinical stage but none that have reached human trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs was the case with Covid, that can be shortened quite significantly because you get emergency access and get emergency approval,\u201d Slade said. \u201cBut if everything kind of stays as with a typical vaccine development, that\u2019s what we would expect to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even with recently renewed interest amid the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak, \u201cthere has to be a strong commercial case for these vaccines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, hantaviruses tend to be endemic in parts of the world that don\u2019t really have that financial backing, so I think there\u2019s just been a lack of interest,\u201d Slade said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Ofer Levy, director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, said China and South Korea have vaccines, but they have been reported as having mixed results and aren\u2019t available outside those countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Americans\u2019 exposure to hantavirus goes as far back as World War II, Levy said, when U.S. soldiers were deployed to Central Europe. Because of that, he said, the U.S. military has previously expressed interest in investing in developing a hantavirus vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, outbreaks of the virus have been rare on a global scale, so funding has been an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere has been no \u2018Warp Speed\u2019 for hantavirus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n