EBOLA: NEWLINK, MERCK EBOLA VACCINE APPEARS SAFE AND EFFECTIVE IN NEW TRIALS

NIH announced last week that both VSV-ZEBOV( a vaccine developed at the Public Health Agency of Canada and licenced to Newlink Genetics Corp and then Merck and Co Inc) and cAd3-EBOZ( an experimental vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline Plc) 'appear to be safe' after high doses were tested in a larger trial in Liberia.

Early stage trials of VSV-ZEBOV in United States, Africa and Europe showed the vaccine triggered robust production of Ebola fighting antibodies.

Volunteers to Ebola vaccine testing cannot be exposed to Ebola, so the production of antibodies is a sign of whether a vaccine can prevent or even treat the disease.

VSV-ZEBOV is said to consist of a cattle virus called rVSV that has been made to carry Ebola genes which produce proteins fighting antibodies.

For the United States trials of VSV-ZEBOV by healthy adult volunteers who received two doses of the vaccine each, the most common side effect was pain at the injection site and shortlived fever.

All 40 participants who received the vaccine produced antibodies within 28 days or less.

In Germany, Switzerland, Gabon and Kenya, 158 healthy volunteers received either a placebo or any five dose levels of the vaccine. However Geneva study was temporarily halted last year when 11 of the 51 participants developed arthritis.

It is thought however there are no 'serious vaccine related events'.

Higher doses of the vaccine produced higher antibodies.

culled from Reuters