Janssen commences early study of Ebola vaccine

Janssen has announced the commencement of a phase I first-in-human clinical trial of a promising new preventive Ebola vaccine.

Led by the Oxford Vaccine Group, part of the University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics, the study is now recruiting participants, with enrolment due to be complete by the end of the month. The first doses of the vaccine have already been administered.

It aims to assess the safety and tolerability of the prime-boost vaccine regimen, in which patients are first given a dose to prime the immune system, and then a boost intended to enhance the immune response over time.

Janssen has partnered with Bavarian Nordic to produce more than 400,000 regimens of the vaccine for use in large-scale clinical trials by April 2015. A total of two million will be made available in 2015, with the ability to quickly scale up to five million over a 12 to 18-month period.

Alex Gorsky, chairman and chief executive officer of Janssen's parent company Johnson and Johnson, said: "As a leader in the field of global health, we have a responsibility to act swiftly as Ebola continues to cause suffering among patients, families and health care workers in west Africa."

The company has allied with key global health partners to accelerate the development of this Ebola vaccine, with the aim of addressing the current African outbreak, which is the deadliest Ebola epidemic in history.