The race is on to develop vaccines against Zika. It seems that almost daily the media is highlighting a new company or institution that is entering the race. Thus far, there are at least 18 competitors around the world.12 For example, there is Brazil’s own renowned Butantan Institute in São Paulo and NIH in Bethesda, MD.12 There is Bharat Biotech International Pvt. Ltd. of Hyderabad, India; Sanofi SA of Paris, France; Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Plymouth Meeting, PA; NewLink Genetics Corp. of Ames, IA; and Scripps Research Institute of La Jolla, CA.13

There is Johnson & Johnson, Inc. of New Brunswick, NJ; Merck & Co. of Kenilworth, NJ; Pfizer, Inc. of New York City, NY; and possibly Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. of Osaka, Japan.14 There’s Protein Sciences Corp.15 of Meriden, CT and GeneOne Life Science, Inc. of Seoul, South Korea and possibly GlaxoSmithKline plc of London, UK.16 And just last month, Immunovaccine Inc. of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and defense engineering firm Leidos, Inc. of Reston, VA announced a collaborative agreement on Zika vaccine research.17 There are others, and there will likely be many more in the years to come.