It’s been many years since the last plague pandemic and occurrences in developed countries are rare, but there are concerns that the disease could be exploited for bioterrorism. Plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium and though treatments do exist, few countries have a vaccine available. One company working to combat the plague is Prokarium, a UK-based company that focuses on developing oral vaccines using synthetic biology. Recently, the company was awarded funding from the UK government to help develop new vaccines targeting Zika, bacterial diarrhoea and plague – with £1 million being targeted directly at the latter. We spoke with Ted Fjallman, CEO at Prokarium, to find out more.
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