Milestone for GSK/NIH candidate Ebola vaccine as first doses shipped for Phase III trial

UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) said this morning that the first batch of its candidate Ebola vaccine is being shipped to West Africa and is expected to arrive in Liberia later today.

The shipment, containing an initial 300 vials of the candidate vaccine, is the first to arrive in one of the main Ebola affected countries and will be used to start the first large-scale efficacy trial of experimental Ebola vaccines in the coming weeks. However, experts warn that, with Ebola cases falling, it may be difficult to establish whether the jab offers any protection against the virus.

The candidate vaccine is currently being tested in five small Phase I clinical trials in the UK, USA, Switzerland and Mali, involving around 200 healthy volunteers in total. Initial data from these trials show that the candidate vaccine has an acceptable safety profile, including in a West African population, and across the different doses evaluated. Based on the safety and immunological data available from these trials, GSK has selected the most appropriate dosage level to advance to the next phases of clinical testing. Results from the first of the Phase I studies were published in November 2014 and results from the remaining Phase I trials will be published in the coming months.

To be tested in Ph II trial involving up to 30,000 people