Canadian Ebola Vaccine to Undergo Testing in West Africa

The Canadian Press reported that an Ebola vaccine developed in a lab in Winnipeg is set to be tested in three studies in West Africa.

As quoted in the market news:

The World Health Organization and several partners announced Thursday they will start testing the vaccine in Guinea in a trial designed to prove whether it is effective. The trial will begin Saturday.

Later this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control expects to launch a trial of the vaccine — now licensed to biotech company NewLink Genetics and pharmaceutical giant Merck — in Sierra Leone.

In Liberia, the U.S. National Institutes of Health has begun to test two experimental Ebola vaccines against a placebo in a large randomized controlled trial. The Liberian trial is studying the NewLink-Merck vaccine as well as one designed at the NIH that is being developed by GSK.

Though that might sound promising, challenges remain:

These important studies are commencing several months later than had been hoped, past the peak of the West African outbreak. That could make answering the question — Do either or both of these vaccines work? — difficult. Yet people who have been pushing for the development of Ebola vaccines think the work remains critical.

‘Testing investigational medicines during an epidemic is incredibly challenging, but this approach gives us the best possible chance of finding a safe and effective vaccine in time to save lives during the current epidemic, and to help us prepare for future outbreaks,’ said Dr. Jeremy Farrah, director of Britain’s Wellcome Trust, which is providing funding for the Guinea trial.

Click here to read the full report from The Canadian Press.