Inviragen and the Program for the Study and Control of Tropical Diseases have announced a Phase I trial in Colombia of Inviragen's lead vaccine candidate, DENVax. The vaccine should protect against all four serotypes of dengue fever. So far, 115 people have died from dengue fever out of 120,000 cases this year. The disease is most prevalent in tropical climates, like Colombia and Central America, and cases have doubled in the past few years. DENVax is being tested in a Phase I trial in the U.S.
The Colombia trial will study 112 healthy adult volunteers and inject them with either placebo or two doses of DENVax. It will also study the efficacy of subcutaneous versus intradermal delivery of the drug. "Inviragen is committed to developing a dengue vaccine that can be safely used to combat outbreaks of dengue fever worldwide," says Professor Jorge Osorio, Inviragen's chief scientific officer, in a release. "This trial will determine whether DENVax is safe and immunogenic in patients who live in endemic countries such as Colombia and can ultimately benefit from the vaccine."
- read the Inviragen release