Inovio's DNA-Based Ebola Vaccine To Enter Human Trials By Early 2015
Inovio Pharmaceuticals in conjunction with vaccine manufacturer GeneOne Life Science announced plans to begin phase I clinical trials on an Ebola vaccine in the first half of 2015. If the phase1 trials prove successful, both companies will seek the support and funding from a third party to further develop and market the vaccine.
The West African Ebola outbreak which began earlier this year shows no signs of stopping. Projections issued by the CDC and the WHO both indicate that the epidemic could become endemic. The CDC predictions put the number of cases at 21,000 before September 30th and 1.4 million by January 20th.
According to Forbes, researchers and health professionals’ biggest concern is that the disease will mutate into multiple strains to make containment and treatment that much more difficult. Market Watch reports that the existing experimental treatments exhibit hazardous side effects and manufacturing complications.
Inovio believes that their SynCon technology can address these concerns as it has already been the basis of other vaccine products which have proven successful against multiple strains of infectious pathogens in humans. Additionally, the immunotherapy approach is considerably less toxic than other methods because it uses and boosts the body’s own natural defenses to fight the disease.
Furthermore, because Inovio’s immunotherapies are all produced using established production processes, manufacturing will suffer fewer delays and difficulties of other experimental treatments.
Pre-clinical testing on guinea pigs found that the Ebola vaccine was effective in 100 percent of cases and preliminary research indicates that the vaccine might also be effective as a treatment.
J. Joseph Kim, CEO of Inovio, said in a released statement, “There are no proven agents to check the spread of Ebola, which is now becoming a health threat of global concern. We are therefore taking the steps with our collaborator to establish the safety and immunogenicity of our Ebola vaccine in humans and to be in position to further advance these agents to help fight this challenging disease.”
The WHO Ebola Response Team wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine, “The risk of continued epidemic expansion and the prospect of endemic EVD in West Africa call for the most forceful implementation of present control measures and for the rapid development and deployment of new drugs and vaccines.”