Governments back Prokarium for Zika and bioterrorism vaccines

UK biotech Prokarium has received funding worth £2 million ($2.63 million) from the UK and Mexican governments for its work in developing vaccines against the Zika virus, bacterial diarrhea and plague.

The most advanced of these vaccines is for the prevention of plague, and the new funding will enable the privately-owned company to carry out a Phase I clinical study starting in 2017.

Although it is now a rare disease, plague bacteria are easily cultured and could be made into an aerosol for bio-terrorism with less difficulty than for other disease-causing organisms, so ideally governments need to have access to a ready stockpile of vaccines at short notice.