Image copyright SVE
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of an investigational smallpox vaccine in older adults who have limited immune responses to smallpox vaccine.
The agency has set a therapeutic use limit of 12 months.
The Zika virus has been shown to lead to a small increase in temozolomide antibody responses to smallpox vaccine.
The experimental vaccine is called SVE, which stands for Temozolomide Antibody/GNase Enhancer Technology.
Smallpox was eradicated in 1980.
There are two principal causes of death among those treated for smallpox vaccination – pneumococcal disease and meningitis.
There have been seven reported cases of cases of meningitis and pneumonia among patients treated with smallpox vaccine, and the last case of meningitis was in 1996.
The number of cases of meningitis or pneumonia in other patients treated with smallpox vaccine are unknown.
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were almost 170,000 cases of smallpox vaccination-related cancers from 1959 to 2016 in the United States.
“It is unknown how the recombinant code and manufacture of p93, a modified p53 protein, leads to immune responses that prevent tumor development,” the FDA said.
Other reasons for Cargill’s interest in SVE is that trials in animals have shown that SVE-boosted SBM can be safe and also can lessen the morbidity and mortality in patients with cancer caused by smallpox vaccination.
Cargill Incorporated, the US agricultural trader, is working with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited to develop the investigational vaccine.
Takeda is a US pharmaceutical company with a global presence, with revenues of almost $20bn.
The manufacturer is one of the largest research and development companies globally.