GlaxoSmithKlineInitial results show Ebola vaccine safe and generated immune response

Initial results from a human trial of an Ebola vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline showed it was safe and generated an immune response, scientists said yesterday, but larger trials were needed to see if it protected and a booster was needed.

The vaccine was being developed by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and GSK against the Zaire strain of Ebola, which is circulating in West Africa.

Meanwhile, the first doses for a larger trial arrived last week in Liberia.

That trial was the first of several mid-stage studies planned for West Africa and aimed to test GSK's vaccine and one from Merck and NewLink.

Johnson & Johnson and Bavarian Nordic had a vaccine in early-stage clinical tests.

The early-stage Phase I trial of the vaccine would primarily test safety, but according to Adrian Hill, who led the work at Oxford's Jenner Institute, it was "encouraging" that the shot also prompted responses from the immune system.

He told Reuters that the safety profile was much was hoped for and the immune responses were "okay, but not great".

The data, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, pertained to 60 healthy volunteers who had been given the vaccine in the UK between 17 September and 18 November last year.

Meanwhile, The Oxford Times reported that the study trial results had shown the vaccine was suitable for further testing in West Africa.

The aim was to learn whether the vaccine offered protection against the disease, which had killed over 8,000 people in the current outbreak.

Hill said the speed at which all this was happening was remarkable thanks to all the volunteers, who continued to take time out of their busy lives to give blood samples at regular intervals so that the researchers could understand more about their immune responses.

He said whether the researchers had a vaccine that was safe, effective and which worked would not be known for a while yet.