Immunovaccine Moving Forward With Ebola Vaccine
BRUCE ERSKINE BUSINESS REPORTER
Published October 20, 2014 - 6:44pm
As the race to find an effective vaccine to treat the Ebola virus heats up, a Halifax clinical-stage vaccine company is attracting international attention.
“We have a potential solution to provide a single-dose (vaccine),” said Marc Mansour, chief executive officer with Immunovaccine Inc., in an interview Monday from Stanford University in California.
The first supplies of an Ebola vaccine developed at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg were shipped Monday to the World Health Organization.
The vaccine has proved effective in animal trials and was recently cleared by the federal government for human trials to determine proper dosage levels and side effects.
Meanwhile, global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is accelerating the development of an Ebola vaccine currently in Phase 1 trials, with results expected by the end of the year.
Mansour said recent events demonstrating the virus’s ability to cross borders have heightened awareness about its potential global threat.
He said single doses of the Glaxo vaccine have proved effective in fighting Ebola in monkeys.
“It might work,” Mansour said.
The vaccine developed in Winnipeg also looks promising in animal tests but has to be kept at very cold temperatures, Mansour said.
“There needs to be a rapid single dose,” he said.
Immunovaccine recently reported positive results from an Ebola vaccine formulated in the company’s DepoVax delivery system, DPX-Ebola. The results were achieved in an animal vaccination trial organized by the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
All vaccinated animals survived exposure to a lethal dose of the wild Zaire strain of the virus, while all unvaccinated animals died from the disease.
Immunovaccine is working with the United States National Institutes of Health, which Mansour said is motivated to get Ebola vaccines in trials, to plan additional DPX-Ebola studies, with data expected in 2015. The data is expected to support advancing DPX-Ebola into human studies.
BRUCE ERSKINE BUSINESS REPORTER
Published October 20, 2014 - 6:44pm
As the race to find an effective vaccine to treat the Ebola virus heats up, a Halifax clinical-stage vaccine company is attracting international attention.
“We have a potential solution to provide a single-dose (vaccine),” said Marc Mansour, chief executive officer with Immunovaccine Inc., in an interview Monday from Stanford University in California.
The first supplies of an Ebola vaccine developed at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg were shipped Monday to the World Health Organization.
The vaccine has proved effective in animal trials and was recently cleared by the federal government for human trials to determine proper dosage levels and side effects.
Meanwhile, global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is accelerating the development of an Ebola vaccine currently in Phase 1 trials, with results expected by the end of the year.
Mansour said recent events demonstrating the virus’s ability to cross borders have heightened awareness about its potential global threat.
He said single doses of the Glaxo vaccine have proved effective in fighting Ebola in monkeys.
“It might work,” Mansour said.
The vaccine developed in Winnipeg also looks promising in animal tests but has to be kept at very cold temperatures, Mansour said.
“There needs to be a rapid single dose,” he said.
Immunovaccine recently reported positive results from an Ebola vaccine formulated in the company’s DepoVax delivery system, DPX-Ebola. The results were achieved in an animal vaccination trial organized by the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
All vaccinated animals survived exposure to a lethal dose of the wild Zaire strain of the virus, while all unvaccinated animals died from the disease.
Immunovaccine is working with the United States National Institutes of Health, which Mansour said is motivated to get Ebola vaccines in trials, to plan additional DPX-Ebola studies, with data expected in 2015. The data is expected to support advancing DPX-Ebola into human studies.
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