U.S. Army and France’s Sanofi combine work on Zika vaccine

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The Associated Press

RECIFE, BRAZIL – JANUARY 26: Aedes aegypti mosquitos are seen in a lab at the Fiocruz institute on January 26, 2016 in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The mosquito transmits the Zika virus and is being studied at the institute. In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants. The ailment results in an abnormally small head in newborns and is associated with various disorders including decreased brain development. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Zika virus outbreak is likely to spread throughout nearly all the Americas. At least twelve cases in the United States have now been confirmed by the CDC. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

PARIS — Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi says it is joining efforts with U.S. Army researchers to speed up development of a potential Zika vaccine.

France-based Sanofi SA said in a statement Wednesday that the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research will transfer its Zika vaccine technology to Sanofi Pasteur, the company’s vaccine arm. Sanofi views the agreement as “opening the door for a broader collaboration with the U.S. government.”

Financial details were not disclosed.

Vaccine development usually takes years. Sanofi made the first vaccine shot against dengue — which is related to Zika — but it required 20 years of development and $1 billion. Sanofi and U.S. researchers are trying to leverage experience with related viruses to accelerate work on Zika amid the current outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus across the Americas.

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