HHS' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response is supporting the accelerated advancement of a vaccine for Ebola.
ASPR's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority will provide about $5.8 million in funding under a one-year contract with Profectus BioSciences in Baltimore. Along with the money, ASPR's BARDA will also supply subject matter expertise and technical training to help move the vaccine's development along.
Profectus BioScience will manufacture the vaccine to use in safety studies and conduct animal studies. Then, the company is expected to submit an investigational new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If the FDA accepts the application, the vaccine could be used in human trials.
"We are pushing hard to advance the development of multiple products as quickly as possible for clinical evaluation and future use in preventing or treating this deadly disease," said BARDA Director Robin Robinson, PhD. "Our goal is to close the global gap in vaccines and therapeutics needed to protect the public health from Ebola as highlighted by the epidemic in West Africa."
Other Ebola vaccines are in clinical trials. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is supporting Phase 1 trials for an investigational Ebola vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline and one developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada.