Chikungunya Vaccines

Chikungunya Vaccines May 2025

Chikungunya vaccines have been commercially available in the United States since 2023 and in Europe since 2024 and are approved in various countries as of May 1, 2025. Like many vaccines, Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) vaccine technologies, such as live-attenuated virus vaccines, inactivated viral vaccines, recombinant viral vaccines, chimeric alphavirus candidates, DNA vaccines, and virus-like particles, focus on optimizing the balance between efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Chikungunya Vaccine Approved and Available in 2025

IXCHIQ® chikungunya vaccine from Valneva SE's was approved by the U.S. in 2023, in Canadia, Europe, United Kingdom, and Brazil. As of April 2025, 80,000 doses have been distributed worldwide..

VIMKUNYA® is a virus-like particle vaccine produced by Bavarian Nordic A/S. It was approved in the U.S. and Europe in 2025. It became commercially available in March 2025.

Chikungunya Vaccine Candidates 2025

The WHO states that several advanced chikungunya vaccine candidates are either undergoing or have already completed regulatory review.

Bharat Biotech International Ltd.'s Chikungunya vaccine candidate, BBV87, is an inactivated whole-virion vaccine based on a strain derived from an East, Central, and South African genotype.

mRNA-1944 vaccine candidate encodes a fully human IgG antibody isolated initially from the B cells of a patient with a prior history of potent immunity against Chikungunya infection. A study published in March 2025 concluded that the results from both mouse and rhesus macaque models indicate that the vaccine could be a candidate for clinical use against CHIKV.

CD8+ T cell CHIKV Adaptive Vaccine candidate. The inclusion of the ligandome into the vaccine construct will require the selection of eight to twelve peptides from the CHIKV peptide set (ligandome), all of which meet several specific criteria. In efficacy studies, the following will then need to be completed.

The Access to Advanced Health Institute received an $18 million award from the National Institutes of Health to develop a temperature-stable, single-dose vaccine candidate for the chikungunya virus. The vaccine uses an innovative RNA platform technology.

A CHIKV vaccine candidate based on baculovirus displaying the chikungunya E1-E2 envelope confers protection against clinical challenges in mice. C57BL/6 mice were immunized with non-adjuvanted recombinant baculovirus-induced IgG antibodies against E2, with a predominant IgG2c subtype, neutralizing antibodies, and a specific IFN-γ CD8+ T-cell response. A second dose significantly boosted the antibody response. 

CHIKV mRNA vaccines study - the results from both mouse and rhesus macaque models indicate that the vaccine could be a candidate for clinical use against CHIKV. Based on the favorable protective effects described in March 2025, 'we consider both mCV-1 and mCV-2 to be potential candidate vaccines for further evaluation in subsequent phase I studies.'

Chikungunya Outbreaks

As of April 18, 2025, over a billion people lived in areas where Chikungunya is endemic. Chikungunya outbreak news in 2025 is posted at this link.