Alliance to Develop Ebola Vaccine

A research and development agreement to jointly develop a vaccine against Ebola fever has been announced by Crucell N.V. (Leiden, The Netherlands) and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Ebola fever is one of the deadliest diseases known, and there are currently no vaccines to prevent or treat infection.

The vaccine is to be based on Crucell's proprietary vaccination platform, called AdVac, and will be produced on the company's human cell line PER.C6. AdVac will be equipped with optimized Ebola genes that have been created by the NIAID researchers. The AdVac platform is designed to allow the production of large quantities of safe, potent vaccines. The technology utilizes an adenovirus vaccination vector to present antigens to the immune system.

As a first step, researchers at the NIAID have developed an experimental adenovirus-based vaccine, which has been shown capable of preventing Ebola fever in monkeys. The AdVac platform should enable this vaccine to be further developed into a potent product.
The vaccine is targeted toward travelers, government officials, military personnel, and people living in Ebola endemic areas in Africa. The vaccine could also provide protection from the virus in the event it is used in biologic warfare.

"Crucell aims to roll out AdVac as the industry's vaccine vector of choice, and sees the collaboration with the NIAID as an important step toward realizing this goal,” said Dr. Jaap Goudsmit, senior vice president, vaccine research, at Crucell.




Related Links:
US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Crucell