Johnson & Johnson begins clinical trial of Ebola vaccine regimen in Sierra Leone

Being conducted in Sierra Leone’s Kambia district, the EBOVAC-Salone study tests a regimen consisting of two vaccine components based on AdVac technology from Crucell Holland, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, and MVA-BN technology from Bavarian Nordic.

The study will evaluate the vaccine regimen’s safety and immune response within the general population of Sierra Leone, including vulnerable groups such as adolescents, children, and people with HIV.

During stage 1 of the trial, the volunteers, approximately 40 adults aged 18 years or older, are being given the AdVac dose to prime their immune system.

The stage 2 will see around 400 individuals, including adolescents and children, vaccinated to further evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine regimen across different age groups.

Additional stages are being finalised in consultation with the Sierra Leonean authorities and international health agencies.

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine director Professor Peter Piot said: "Prime-boost vaccination is an effective strategy for long-term prevention of several infectious diseases, and we believe it may have a key role to play in the fight against Ebola."

The EBOVAC-Salone trial is being carried put on a parallel track with multiple ongoing Phase I and II studies across the US, Europe and Africa as part of the accelerated development plan for the Ebola vaccine regimen.

In January, a consortium of global research institutions and non-government organisations led by Janssen Pharmaceutical secured more than €100m in grants from Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative to support the development, manufacturing and deployment of the vaccine regimen.

The investigational Ebola vaccine regimen is said to have been discovered in a collaborative research programme with the National Institutes of Health.

Janssen company, Crucell Holland received $28.5m from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority in September to help accelerate the development of the prime-boost vaccine regimen.

As of October 2015, more than 28,400 people have been infected with the Ebola virus across Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, and nearly 11,300 have died, including more than 500 health care workers.

In Sierra Leone alone, nearly 14,000 cases of Ebola have been reported with 4,000 deaths.

Image: Volunteers receiving their initial dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Ebola prime-boost vaccine regimen in Sierra Leone. Photo: courtesy of Johnson & Johnson.