On March 6, 2015, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health, announced Canadian support for a Phase 3 Ebola vaccine clinical trial in Guinea. Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) are collaborating to provide critical advice, safety oversight, training and support to the clinical trial of Canada's VSV-EBOV vaccine developed by PHAC.
Under the Canadian partnership, managed by IDRC, Canadian experts will oversee the validation and safety of clinical trial results and will provide scientific advice to the international team conducting the trial in Guinea. The partnership will also help build the capacity of Guinean researchers, and support safety monitoring activities by African and international experts. Led by the World Health Organization with the Health Ministry of Guinea, Médecins Sans Frontières, Epicentre and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the Phase 3 trial aims to assess efficacy and effectiveness to prevent the contract and spread of the Ebola infection.
Trial results are expected by the end of 2015. Information from the trial will be shared with the international community as part of the global response to the Ebola crisis. This trial will complement other Phase 2 and 3 trials planned or underway in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and will take into account results from global Phase 1 trials.
The Government of Canada maintains ownership of the intellectual property associated with Canada's VSV-EBOV Ebola vaccine and has licensed rights to develop the vaccine to NewLink Genetics through its wholly owned subsidiary BioProtection Systems. NewLink recently entered into an agreement with Merck to continue to develop the vaccine for use in humans. Results from earlier trials have already demonstrated the safety of this vaccine in small groups of healthy volunteers.
