Ebola Vaccine Undergoes Safety Trial

Doctors and scientist at Oxford University have started the first safety trial of an experimental preventative Ebola vaccine regimen being developed by the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen).

The Oxford Vaccine Group, part of the University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics, aims to have vaccinated all 72 healthy adult volunteers by the end of January.

The development of this prime-boost vaccine regimen has been accelerated in response to the current outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa, which has claimed over 6,000 lives. An effective vaccine would be an important step in controlling the spread of disease.

Volunteers for the trial, aged 18–50 years, are likely to come largely from the Oxfordshire region, and will be asked to make a maximum of 12 visits to the Oxford Vaccine Group site on the city’s Churchill hospital site over a period of a year.

The study involves a prime-boost vaccine regimen, in which patients are first given a prime to the immune system to stimulate an initial immune response, and then a boost intended to further enhance the level of the body’s immune response over time. The vaccine regimen does not contain any replicating virus, so it is not possible to be infected with Ebola.

Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that the prime-boost regimen, given two months apart, provides non-human primates with complete protection from death due to the Kikwit Zaire strain of Ebola – which is similar to the virus causing the current outbreak in Western Africa.

People interested in volunteering can find out more at www.ebolavaccine.org.uk.