The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has granted accelerated assessment for the upcoming Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) for CHIKV VLP, Bavarian Nordic’s investigational chikungunya vaccine.
The accelerated assessment, which is granted based upon CHMP’s decision that the vaccine candidate is of major interest for public health and therapeutic innovation, may reduce the timeframe for the review of the MAA from 210 days under the standard review procedure to 150 days, not counting clock stops when applicants must provide additional information.
Bavarian Nordic is on track and plans to submit its MAA for CHIKV VLP to the EMA during H1 2024.
“We are pleased to receive the accelerated assessment in recognition of our chikungunya vaccine candidate and our efforts to bring this novel product to the market. With this, we have the ability to accelerate the approval and our launch timelines for the vaccine in Europe. As part of our global strategy, we also plan to submit our biologics license application (BLA) for the vaccine candidate to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration later this year,” said Paul Chaplin, President and CEO of Bavarian Nordic.
In 2023, Bavarian Nordic successfully completed two Phase 3 studies of CHIKV VLP. Both studies met their primary endpoints, demonstrating that CHIKV VLP induced high levels of neutralizing antibodies against chikungunya in individuals 12 years and above, with antibody titers equal to or above the threshold agreed with authorities as a marker of seroprotection.
One study enrolled 3,254 healthy adults and adolescents aged 12 to 64 years of age, who were randomized to receive either a single intramuscular injection of CHIKV VLP, or placebo. The results up to day 22 post vaccination showed that CHIKV VLP was highly immunogenic, as demonstrated by the strong induction of chikungunya neutralizing antibodies in 98% of vaccinees in the active group.
Importantly, CHIKV VLP induced significant neutralizing antibodies in 47% and 97% of the subjects after 8 days and 15 days post vaccination respectively. These responses were robust and durable, as 86% of the subjects had seroprotective levels of neutralizing antibodies 6 months post vaccination.
A similar study, which enrolled 413 healthy adults ≥65 years of age, showed neutralizing antibodies in 87% of the vaccinees 22 days after a single vaccination. Seroprotective antibodies were confirmed in 82% of the individuals at day 15.
CHIKV VLP was well-tolerated across both studies and vaccine-related adverse events were mainly mild or moderate in nature.
