FDA approves first Zika vaccine testing on humans

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given pharmaceutical company Inovio the green light to start the first vaccine trials on humans.

The initial trials will involve 40 healthy subjects and will evaluate the quality of the vaccine.

Those with the company tell 47 ABC the vaccine is not infectious, meaning the subjects have no chance of contracting Zika.

The reports from the trials should be ready later this year.

Officials say soon after that the vaccine could move to countries where the virus has spread rapidly for larger scale trials.

“We’re rapidly moving this development. So I think by the end of this year or early next year we’ll be able to launch the larger field trials in those endemic areas,” said Dr. Joseph Kim, CEO and President of the Inovio.

The company said in pre-clinical testing the vaccine performed extremely well on animals.