Vaccines Alliance Signs $5 Million Advance Deal for Merck’s Ebola Shot

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The Gavi global alliance for vaccines and immunization group signed a $5 million advance purchase commitment on Wednesday to buy a vaccine being developed by Merck to protect against future outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus.

Gavi said the agreement would help the U.S. drugmaker take the experimental Ebola vaccine through late-stage clinical trials to licensing and then through pre-qualification by the World Health Organization (WHO).

If approved, Merck’s so-called VSV-ZEBOV live attenuated Ebola Zaire vaccine would become one of the world’s first licensed Ebola shots and Gavi would be able to start buying it to create a stockpile for future outbreaks, it said in a statement issued at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

A vast epidemic of Ebola which swept through three countries in West Africa last year killed more than 11,300 people and infected more than 28,600.

Source: Reuters (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Health Care
Tags
infectious diseases, vaccines