Overview

• Oxford’s program is the first UK academic vaccine effort to earn EMA Prime backing, securing closer ties with regulators.
• The candidate jab has entered phase one clinical trials after showing promising safety and immune response in early studies.
• Nipah virus kills up to 85% of patients and triggers fever, respiratory symptoms and often fatal brain swelling.
• Transmission spans spillovers from fruit bats or pigs and contaminated food, with documented cases of person-to-person spread.
• Since its 1999 discovery among Malaysian pig farmers, Nipah has caused nearly annual outbreaks in Bangladesh and periodic cases in India’s Kerala region.