Merck locates frozen batch of undisclosed Ebola vaccine, will donate for testing in Uganda ’s outbreak

In a revelation that may help Uganda combat its outbreak of Ebola, the pharmaceutical giant Merck has acknowledged to Science— after repeated inquiries — that it has up to 100,000 doses of an experimental vaccine for the deadly viral disease in its freezers in Pennsylvania and will donate them. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ugandan government are discussing if and how these doses can be incorporated into one or more clinical trials of other candidate Ebola vaccines that could launch as soon as next month. The Merck vaccine targets Sudan ebolavirus, the pathogen currently circulating in Uganda. Merck quietly made the product in 2015 and 2016, soon after it had a landmark success with a similar vaccine against Zaire ebolavirus, a different virus that caused a big epidemic in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. The company froze the Sudan Ebola vaccine in bulk form and never tested it on people. But it has been shown to protect monkeys challenged with Sudan ebolavirus, and given the efficacy of Merck’s Zaire Ebola vaccine, scientists have high hopes that the Sudan Ebola shots will be safe and effective as well. Merck’s disclosure “is amazingly good news,” says Mark Feinberg, who led the company’s program to develop the Zaire Ebola vaccine.  “It allows this very promising vaccine to move forward quicker than would have otherwise been possible.” Feinberg left Merck in 2015 and now heads the vaccine non-profi...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news