Exclusive: Canada to donate its own Ebola vaccine to WHO for use in Africa

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="relatedPhoto landscape" id="articleImage" style="clear: left !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px; position: relative; width: 580px;"> <img alt="People sit near a poster with a government message against Ebola, at the health minister's office in Abidjan August 11, 2014. REUTERS/Luc Gnago" border="0" src="http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20140812&t=2&i=963611288&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=LYNXMPEA7B0V2" style="display: block; width: 580px;" /><div class="rolloverCaption" id="captionContent" style="bottom: 0px; clear: both; float: left; left: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: -10px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative; width: 590px; z-index: 2;"> <div class="rolloverBg" style="background-image: none; clear: both; float: left; padding-bottom: 0px; width: 610px !important;"> <div class="captionText" style="height: 60px; padding: 10px; position: relative;"> <div style="padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">People sit near a poster with a government message against Ebola, at the health minister's office in Abidjan August 11, 2014.</span></div> <div class="credit" style="margin-top: 5px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">CREDIT: REUTERS/LUC GNAGO</span></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="relatedRai" id="relatedInlineVideo"> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; 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margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 140px;"> <ul style="clear: both; float: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; width: 140px;"> <li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 7px 0px;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/12/us-health-ebola-vaccine-canada-idUSKBN0GC24820140812" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; outline: none medium; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">Canada to donate 800 to 1,000 Ebola vaccine doses to WHO</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; 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outline: none medium; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">Health »</span></a></li> <li style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/africa" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; outline: none medium; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">Africa »</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> <div id="thirdPartyLinkbackNews"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid2" id="relatedInteractive" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 140px;"> </div> </div> <div class="columnLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-right: 35px;"> <div class="relatedRail gridPanel grid4" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 300px;"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">(Reuters) - Canada will donate a small quantity of an experimental Ebola vaccine developed in its government lab to the World Health Organization for use in Africa, the country's health minister said on Tuesday.</span></div> <span id="articleText" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span id="midArticle_start"></span><span id="midArticle_0"></span><span class="focusParagraph"></span><span id="midArticle_1"></span><span id="midArticle_2"></span></span><br /> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> The decision to donate the vaccine came after the WHO said on Tuesday that it was ethical to offer untested drugs to people infected by the virus.</div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Canadian government will donate between 800 to 1,000 doses of the vaccine, with the final number given dependent on how much Canada holds back for research and clinical trials. The government will also keep a small supply in case it is needed domestically.</span><br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Health Minister Rona Ambrose said she offered the vaccine to Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The U.S. is also working on a vaccine and the WHO and governments involved were discussing possible use in Africa, Dr. Greg Taylor, deputy chief public health officer of the Public Health Agency of Canada told Reuters in an interview ahead of the Canadian announcement.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Canada only has about 1,500 animal doses of the vaccine, which it invented a few years ago, and would need four to six months to make a large quantity, he said. The government's vaccine is separate from the treatment being developed by Canada's Tekmira<span class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/sectors/industries/overview?industryCode=160&lc=int_mb_1001" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none medium; text-decoration: none;">Pharmaceuticals</a></span> Corp.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"We see this as a global resource, something we need to put on the global table to say ... how can we make best use of this asset? "We're looking to do that as fast as we can,” Taylor said, speaking from Ottawa.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Ebola outbreak is the world's largest and deadliest. So far, 1,013 people have died, the vast majority in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Canadian vaccine, which the agency licensed for commercialization to U.S. firm BioProtection Systems, a unit of Newlink Genetics, has proven effective in animals but has never been tested in humans, Taylor said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Last week, Iowa-based NewLink said that BioProtection had a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense for studies to bring the Canadian Ebola vaccine closer to human testing.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We’ve been trying to figure out how we can make a contribution in the fight against this disease and get our vaccine into the clinic,” Brian Wiley, NewLink vice-president of business development, told Reuters on Tuesday. “A large amount of work still needs to be done, but when there is a dire need the powers that be move at a quicker pace."</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Canada's Taylor did not specify which of several U.S. vaccines in development he was referring to that may be used in Africa along with the Canadian vaccine.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Profectus BioSciences of Tarrytown, New York, has tested its Ebola vaccine in monkeys with good results, its chief science officer John Eldridge said on Tuesday.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, deciding whether to use an experimental drug on humans is "very difficult," Taylor said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"You really don't know how safe it is, you don’t know what the side effects are going to be. But in this extraordinary circumstance in Africa right now, we’re trying to do everything we can to assist."</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The first doses in Africa would likely be available to health care workers, Taylor said.</span></div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span id="midArticle_3"></span><span id="midArticle_4"></span><span id="midArticle_5"></span><span id="midArticle_6"></span><span id="midArticle_7"></span><span id="midArticle_8"></span><span id="midArticle_9"></span><span id="midArticle_10"></span><span id="midArticle_11"></span><span id="midArticle_12"></span><span id="midArticle_13"></span><span id="midArticle_14"></span><span id="midArticle_15"></span><span id="midArticle_0"></span></span><br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Public Health Agency of Canada was also involved in the development of ZMapp, an experimental Ebola treatment licensed by U.S. firm Mapp Biopharmaceutical that has been used to treat two infected American aid workers. Liberia said on Tuesday it will get Mapp's drug to treat two doctors.</span></div> </div>

Exclusive: Canada to donate its own Ebola vaccine to WHO for use in Africa

People sit near a poster with a government message against Ebola, at the health minister's office in Abidjan August 11, 2014. CR...

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