The New York Times reports that “eighteen organizations are working on developing a vaccine for the Zika virus”. Small pharma companies have seen their market cap jump after announcing that they’re looking into Zika vaccines. Many big pharma companies are also exploring Zika solutions.

So naturally, I’ve fielded inquiries as to when will BiondVax jump on the Zika vaccine bandwagon. My thoughts - we won’t, for these reasons:

(1) The Zika virus doesn’t change very much. Meaning a Zika vaccine doesn’t need BiondVax’s technology which targets frequently mutating viruses. Using our technology against Zika would be like using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito.

(2) Thanks to the magic of herd immunity, acute infections caused by relatively stable viruses naturally burn out. Check out Science’s interview this week with Scott Halstead:

Q: There’s a big rush to make vaccines against chikungunya and Zika because there’s fear. But for Brazil, for example, by the time there’s a vaccine, you’re suggesting the country’s population may well be largely immune to Zika.

A: Exactly. It’s like Ebola. It will be gone...Based on the observations that I’ve made and that anybody can see with their own eyes if they look at the data, this virus is just going to burn itself out.”

(3) It takes years for a vaccine to reach the market – so most likely by the time Zika vaccines are ready, Zika will no longer be an acute problem.

The NYT agrees: “…as with Ebola, the epidemic could be over before a vaccine is ready.”

(4) Zika’s impact is still being sussed out. It appears it generally only causes mild illness, with the notable exception of microcephaly. On the other hand, the flu kills up to 500,000 people each year. It is exponentially more damaging than Zika.

(5) Current flu vaccines are ineffective. Last year's vaccine effectiveness was only 23% - and it’s as low as 9% in people over 65 years old.

One of the reasons current flu vaccines are inadequate is because the flu virus is constantly mutating, resulting in a virus-vaccine mismatch. As well, flu reservoirs in poultry and swine often churn out new versions. BiondVax’s flu vaccine is designed to target all flu strains – both seasonal and pandemic. Results from our five completed clinical trials are very promising. We’ve even shown that our flu vaccine provided protection against a FUTURE strain!

We plan to be Phase 3 ready in 2017/8, and get to market a few years later.

So for all these reasons, BiondVax isn't going to jump on the Zika vaccine bandwagon. We'll remain focused on replacing today's ineffective flu vaccines with an urgently needed game-changing universal flu vaccine.