Zika virus sparks pharmaceutical gold rush as firms race to produce vaccine

New York

BEFORE it became known as a deadly virus, Zika was just a lush forest on the north shores of Lake Victoria, a quiet sanctuary across from Tanzania and its gold mines.

These days, the virus has sparked a gold rush of its own: companies are touting products from vaccines not even tried in mice to devices that filter Zika from the blood - leaving public health experts to determine which proposals can help halt the mosquito-borne disease's explosive spread.

More than 15 companies have been in touch with the World Health Organization (WHO) about developing vaccines, and about 20 are working on diagnostic tools, the global health agency said last Friday.

Alongside France's Sanofi - which sells a vaccine against a similar virus - are smaller players such as the US's Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc and GeoVax Labs Inc, and developers of testing kits sold to laboratories fo…