Ebola Vaccine Testing Starts.

Leading the News

Ebola Vaccine Testing Starts.

The Los Angeles Times (10/23, Morin) reports that yesterday, the National Institutes of Health “announced...that human testing as begun on a second experimental Ebola vaccine, VSV-ZEBOV.” The Hill (10/23, Viebeck) adds that the vaccine, developed by Canada’s public health agency, will be tested “in partnership with the Pentagon, the agency announced.” NIH plans to test “its effectiveness in two intramuscular doses while the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is testing it in one dose.” In a statement, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said, “The need for a vaccine to protect against Ebola infection is urgent.”

        The New York Times (10/22, B2, Pollack, Subscription Publication) reported that pharmaceutical companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, Bavarian Nordic, and GlaxoSmithKline, are all testing or will soon starting testing various Ebola vaccines, plans which “signify that a response to the Ebola outbreak is finally gathering steam.” However, “it is still unclear if any of these vaccines will work...and even if they do, they may not be ready in time to help stem the current epidemic.” Also covering the story are Reuters (10/22, Hirschler) and the NBC News (10/22, Fox) website.

        Reuters (10/23, Hirschler) reports that Europe will set aside $250 million to develop Ebola vaccines. The announcement is expected to come later in the week at as part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative.

        San Francisco Company Seeks To Test Experimental Ebola Vaccine. The San Francisco Chronicle (10/23, Lee) reports that “a South San Francisco company is reviving an experimental Ebola vaccine that it previously dropped, joining other companies and health agencies in the rush to contain the deadly disease in West Africa.” The drug is being developed by Vaxart, which initially started work on the drug in 2012. The tests were put on hold due to funding concerns, but this week “Vaxart reversed course and said it will ask the US Food and Drug Administration to begin a phase I safety trial of its Ebola vaccine in healthy humans early next year.”

        Cheney Played Role In Ebola Drug Development. Bloomberg News (10/23, Pettypiece) reports that “at least seven drugs now being tested – including some used to treat Ebola victims in the US – grew from biodefense measures first approved after” the 9/11 attacks. Credit for that may be due to then-Vice President Dick Cheney. According to the article, after the attacks Cheney “said he feared assaults by bioterrorists could be far more devastating than what happened that day, and became an advocate in the George W. Bush White House for the appropriation of billions of dollars to stop deadly pathogens.”

        WHO: Ebola Vaccine Trials In West Africa Could Begin In Early 2015. The AP (10/22, Heilprin) reports that, according to Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, an assistant director general for WHO, “tens of thousands of doses of experimental Ebola vaccines” may be available for “real-world” testing in West Africa “as soon as January as long as they are deemed safe.” Among the new vaccines discussed by Kieny were those “developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and GlaxoSmithKline from a modified chimpanzee cold virus” plus an Ebola protein. The vaccines are “in clinical trials now in the U.K. and in Mali and will be used in trials in Lausanne, Switzerland, by the start of February.”