Rabies infections are responsible for the loss of over 55,000 human lives each year, mostly children in Asia and Africa. In these countries, human rabies infections usually result from the bite of an infected dog; as many of 70% of rabies victims are under 15 years of age. Since current rabies vaccines do not induce long term immunity (e.g. over 2 years), the typical treatment for prevention of human rabies infection is Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), which consists of a series of 5-8 immunizations with rabies vaccine in conjunction with the administration of rabies immune globulin.

Due to overall costs, complexity of the treatment protocol, and a need to refrigerate the materials, the current PEP regimen is employed in only a fraction of the dog bite cases in Asia and Africa. There remains a need for an inexpensive, temperature stable, prophylactic rabies vaccine that can be used in these regions.

The recombinant chimp adenovirus-based rabies vaccine can induce long-lasting immunity to rabies after a single immunization. Such a vaccine has the potential to be less expensive to produce and administer than the current PEP treatment regimen, which requires multiple immunizations in combination with immune globulin.

Wistar will provide prospective partners with the appropriate materials (rAdC68 expressing rabies glycoprotein) to develop vaccines for use in Asia and Africa. Non-exclusive or exclusive licenses will be considered.