971512Validation and cGMP manufacture of a Zika and Multivalent Filovirus vaccineClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeInnovate UKFrom mosquito borne viruses such as Zika, to human-to-human transmitted viruses such as Ebola, the risk of infectious disease remains a true medical challenge for the world. Developing countries are disproportionately affected; nearly all the victims in the recent Ebola epidemic lived in low income African countries while Zika continues to spread to the regions that do not have the resources available to deal with the lifelong disability associated with the foetal effects of infection. Such outbreaks occur rapidly and unexpectedly where a viable vaccine, the gold standard of defence against viral infectious disease, is not available. This highlights the urgent need for vaccines that can be developed quickly and on-demand and which are also affordable and practical in the low resource environments where they are required. Due to the high production costs, high manufacturing costs, requirement of cold and variable efficacy; existing vaccine technologies do not fit this need. Emergex has developed a novel synthetic vaccine platform technology, which it will apply to the generation of a vaccine against Zika and a multitarget vaccine against all strains of Ebola and Marburg . This involves the addition of viral components to a gold nanoparticle carrier system, resulting in ultra-small 100% synthetic vaccine agents. These synthetic vaccines that are highly stable, eliminating the need for cold chain and allowing an extensive shelf life. The synthetic nature also means the production process is fast, cheap and highly scalable: for our vaccines, we estimate that with current facilities 1 million doses could be produced in a day at cost of goods and manufacture of $0.109 per dose. This contrasts with the most advanced experimental Ebola vaccine, cAd3-EBO Z, an attenuated live vaccine generated in cell lines, which is estimated to have a production capacity of 100,000 to 500,000 doses over 9 months at a cost of $50-$250 per dose. With 70 million people in “at-risk” Ebola regions, where other technologies would fall short, the Emergex technology could provide an affordable and practical solution to meet the dose demand required to incur population immunity. The recent Zika outbreak can be defined as a foetal-maternal health issue. Evidence has confirmed a link between the Zika infections in pregnant mothers and birth defects (i.e. microcephaly ~ 1% incidence) of the foetus in utero. It is also now proposed that in 20% of cases maternal Zika can lead to some form of neurologic damage. This disproprotionately effects developing countres with limited resources to deal with lifelong disability. Since the mother cannot pass immunity to her child until late in pregnancy and there will always be a brief period where the foetus is exposed to infection, vaccination of the mother alone is not sufficient and vaccination of the feotus is required. The high safety profile and small size of our vaccines means we believe we are the only technology that is suited to in-utero vaccination The impact of infectious disease epidemics on emerging economies is enough to reverse or impede decades of development, meaning the effects reverberate for years to come. The importance of novel vaccine technologies that are suited to where and when they are needed has never been more evident