Ebola Vaccine Candidates Underway: NewLink Genetics (NLNK), Merck
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Healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients and family and friends in close contact with Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with the blood or body fluids of sick patients. People also can become sick with Ebola after coming in contact with infected wildlife.
People remain infectious as long as their blood and body fluids, including semen and breast milk, contain the virus. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness
The current outbreak in West Africa, (first cases notified in March 2014), is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976.
According to the World Health Organization's Ebola response roadmap, a total of 20,206 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported in four affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone) and four previously affected countries (Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the United States of America) in the seven days to 28 December, 2014 (week 52). There have been 7,905 reported deaths. On December 29, 2014 the United Kingdom reported its first confirmed EVD case.
Governments and industry are effectively collaborating in an unprecedented effort to accelerate the development of Ebola vaccine candidates. If they can bring an efficacious and well-tolerated vaccine to the outbreak countries, they will not only help protect people at risk in the current crisis, but also may help reduce the likelihood of such tragic events in the future.
NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK) and Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) recently said that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services has awarded NLNK's wholly-owned subsidiary, BioProtection Systems, as the prime contractor in a $30 million contract to support the manufacturing and development activities of its investigational rVSV-EBOV (Ebola) vaccine candidate, including clinical development through a new 330-person Phase Ib study.
The vaccine candidate was initially developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada, and is now being developed under an exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement between NLNK and MRK. The rVSV-EBOV (Ebola) vaccine candidate is currently being evaluated in Phase I clinical studies in humans.
The rVSV vaccine platform is based on attenuated strains of vesicular stomatitis virus, a common animal virus, that has been modified to express an Ebola virus protein and which is non-pathogenic in primates and mice.
NLNK is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology products to improve treatment options for patients with cancer. NLNK's BioProtection Systems is focused on control of emerging infectious diseases, including improvement of existing vaccines and providing rapid-response prophylactic and therapeutic treatment for pathogens most likely to enter the human population through pandemics or acts of bioterrorism.
More about NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK) at www.linkp.com
MRK is a global healthcare leader working to help the world be well. Merck is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada.
More about Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) at www.merck.com
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