EVI, Hilleman Labs partner to develop new Shigella vaccine

The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) has decided to give a grant of 8.6 million euro for the development of a Shigella vaccine, India-based Hilleman Laboratories and the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) said on Monday.

Shigellosis is an acute enteric infection caused by consumption of food and water contaminated with bacteria from the genus Shigella. It is one of the leading causes of diarrhoea, EVI and Hilleman Laboratories said in a statement.

"Through this project we aim to further develop a novel oral vaccine against Shigella that we expect will cover the commonly isolated pathogenic strains of this bacteria," EVI Head of Business Development Stefan Jungbluth said.

The vaccine, pioneered by Hilleman Laboratories from India, has been optimised for use in low resource settings. It has a cost-of-goods advantage and is easy to manufacture and deliver, he added.

"Considering the huge disease burden carried by Shigella and given that there is no licensed vaccine currently available to address the disease, we are pleased to partner with EVI to further advance our vaccine with funding support from EDCTP and technical support of our consortium members," Hilleman Laboratories CEO Davinder Gill said.

ShigOraVax will be the first-ever Indian vaccine developed to benefit people living in low and middle-income settings, he added.

Other partners in the project are Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands, the Groupe de Recherche- Action en Sant, Burkina Faso, the Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Zambia, and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

The EDCTP finances clinical research to accelerate the development of new or improved drugs, vaccines, microbicides and diagnostics with a focus on phase II and III clinical trials.