An Indian pharmaceutical firm, Bharat Biotech, is scheduled to begin pre-clinical, animal trials for the first Zika vaccine, ZIKAVAC, in the next few weeks.

It could be ready in 2 years, a significant reduction from earlier forecasts. The firm is reaching out to Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, to collaborate on the process.

The Zika virus was recently declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization because of birth defects such as microcephaly (shrunken head) it could trigger.

The announcement was the 4th time WHO ever made such a warning (for context the last one was Ebola), and it did so to get health teams around the world focused on developing a vaccine to stop Zika.  

Typically, the pharmaceutical industry takes a last resort approach to vaccines. Only when a disease starts careening out of control do they begin to develop vaccines.

This is because vaccines aren’t seen as profitable. All drugs require significant research & development investments, so firms tend to prioritize drugs that will yield consistent revenue. This is  particularly drugs that have to be taken regularly and indefinitely, such as blood pressure or depression medication.

Bharat Biotech has taken a different approach, however, one that puts health, not money, first.

The firm has invested $150 million USD in vaccines since it opened its portfolio and has developed a number of vaccines since then.

If more public resources and incentives were made available to private firms, then the traditional calculations could be changed.

Instead of seeing peremptory vaccines as a waste of time and money, they would have the support needed to go forward.

As the world faces a new vanguard of disease from climate change and antibiotic resistant bacteria, more robust, globalized strategies for developing medicine will have to be developed.