SHARES
The approval by Swissmedic, the Swiss regulatory authority for therapeutic products, for a trial with an experimental Ebola vaccine at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) is wholeheartedly welcomed by the World Health Organization (WHO). This is the latest effort at bringing safe and effective Ebola vaccines for testing and implementation as quickly as possible.
The approval for the clinical trial of the vaccine means that it will be used on approximately 120 individuals in Lausanne. It is being carried out with the support from WHO and is the latest in a series of trials that are ongoing in Mali, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The vaccine
The safety and efficacy of the vaccine which is based on a genetically modified chimpanzee adenovirus (“ChAd-Ebola”; Chimpanzee-Adenovirus chAD3-ZEBOV) will be checked to its capacity to induce an immune response. Results from this CHUV trial will form the basis for planning subsequent trials involving several thousand participants, and for choosing vaccine dose-level for efficacy trials.
The application for the vaccine which consists of a which can be used as a genetic carrier for one Ebola protein and is rendered harmless is developed by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline was submitted at the end of September 2014, handled as a priority, considering the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
The trail for the vaccine in Switzerland
The trial will be conducted in Switzerland and coordinated by WHO. A trail concurrent to the one to Lausanne will be conducted for a second vaccine called rVSV-ZEBOV to be tested at the Geneva University Hospitals.
The Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation at WHO, Marie-Paule Kieny said that “These are dosing and safety trials being held in advance of Phase II and III trials currently scheduled for late 2014-early 2015. If shown to be safe and effective, either of the vaccines could be scaled up for production during the first quarter of next year, with millions of doses produced for wide distribution in high-risk countries.”
Trials in Lausanne will begin this week, with first results expected in December 2014.
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About Ruchira Dhoke
A qualified medical microbiologist with an avidity to read enchant a deep passion for creating a good impacting masterpiece with my words .I am very fond of good old English literature and like listening to music and paint in my free time.
