Abuja - Thousands of experimental Ebola
vaccine doses from British GSK and US
NewLink should be ready for use by early
2015 in countries affected by the epidemic,
the World Health Organisation said Friday.
Focus on two experimental vaccines
"If everything goes well, we may be able to
begin using some of these vaccines in some
of the affected countries at the very
beginning of next year," said WHO assistant
director general Marie-Paule Kieny.
There is no licensed treatment or vaccine
against the virus that has killed nearly 3,000
people in West Africa, and the UN health
agency has endorsed rushing through
experimental treatments and vaccines.
The WHO is especially focusing on two
experimental vaccines, one made by British
company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and the
other by US group NewLink Genetics, and is
working with both companies to accelerate
clinical trials, Kieny said.
Some clinical trials have begun in the United
States, and others are set to begin in Mali
next week, she said.
The agency has already said that, if found to
be safe, some doses should be available for
use to healthcare workers by November and
wider use could be possible early next year.
A candidate vaccine
The Canadian government has already
donated 800 vials of the NewLink vaccine to
WHO, and Kieny said thousands of doses
would likely be available in coming months.
Around 10,000 doses of the GSK vaccine
should also be available by then, she said.
"This is not a vaccine, this is a candidate
vaccine," she said, pointing to the need for
showing great caution in rolling out the
vaccines more broadly.
The two candidate vaccines "have given
very promising results in monkeys, but
monkeys are not humans," she said.
Another experimental vaccine by US
company Johnson & Johnson had not been
ruled out, but "they are clearly behind by a
few months," Kieny said.

Source::: www.m.news24.com/nigeria/Lifestyle/Experimental-Ebola-vaccine-ready-by-2015-20140929-2