The fight to find a cure and a vaccine for the Ebola virus is gaining speed as a Chinese firm is all set to mass produce Ebola virus vaccines.
A Chinese biotech firm, Tianjin CanSino Biotechnology Inc. is set to invest $315.14 million to create a facility in Tianjin city in the north eastern region of China.
The announcement came after the disease, which has killed more than 11,000 people, is reported to dwindle.
This new facility would be the location for the mass production of the vaccine.
The anticipated year of the facility's completion will be around 2017-2018, although the exact start date for the manufacture has not yet been confirmed.
The vaccine was developed by a group of biotech scientists from the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences, reported the Chinese news agency Xinhua. The vaccine, which is right now kept in freeze-dried powder form, was derived from the 2014 mutant gene type. In this form, the vaccine is said to exude stability for a minimum of two weeks under temperatures of up to 37 degrees Celsius or 99 degrees Fahrenheit.
Experts say that the tropical weather conditions of West African nations would be the ideal place to use the vaccine. This is the region that was worst hit by Ebola in 2014 resulting in the greatest epidemic attack ever.
The clinical trials for the drug were carried out in December 2014 after obtaining permission from the Chinese regulatory authorities. This development and the approval for trials for the vaccine to fight the disease is said to have placed China among the global leaders in vaccine development for Ebola.
However the incidents of Ebola infection seemed to have bedded down in 2015 as there has been no new recorded cases reported within a week in October 2015 in the three West African countries where the significant outbreaks were noted. This is the first time that such a thing has happened ever since the epidemic broke out in 2014.
A successful Ebola vaccine has already been developed by Merck and NewLink Genetics, which exuded a 100 percent effectivity rate in a clinical trial in Guinea in July 2015.
A clinical study in Sierra Leone earlier in October 2015 has been started by U.S. pharma company Johnson & Johnson and the said vaccine will come in a two-shot formulation.
Apart from the plans to mass produce the Ebola vaccine, China has offered to donate $120 million and 500 medical personnel and experts to affected nations since the Ebola outbreak started.
The fight to find a vaccine for Ebola virus has reached clinical trial stages and a new vaccine is being tested for the first time in Europe on volunteers at a Spanish hospital in Madrid. In the tests 40 health workers are being checked to see if they develop any side effects.
It had been 100 percent effective when the same vaccine was used on 4,000 people in Guinea according to the World Health Organisation.
The vaccine development program is aimed to develop one ‘that works, that would be only one dose, and that could be applied on the ground’.
One of the participants, who also happened to be a doctor said that after test he only experienced a fever which came and easily went from the vaccine.
Recently a British nurse who seemingly made a full recovery but is now critically ill after the virus re-emerged has made the researchers believe that much more needs to be learnt about the Ebola virus.
The worst ever outbreak of a disease of epidemic proportions happened in 2013 which killed more than 11000 people within a span of one year and infected more than 28000.
(Sources: www.theguardian.com & www.techtimes.com)
A Chinese biotech firm, Tianjin CanSino Biotechnology Inc. is set to invest $315.14 million to create a facility in Tianjin city in the north eastern region of China.
The announcement came after the disease, which has killed more than 11,000 people, is reported to dwindle.
This new facility would be the location for the mass production of the vaccine.
The anticipated year of the facility's completion will be around 2017-2018, although the exact start date for the manufacture has not yet been confirmed.
The vaccine was developed by a group of biotech scientists from the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences, reported the Chinese news agency Xinhua. The vaccine, which is right now kept in freeze-dried powder form, was derived from the 2014 mutant gene type. In this form, the vaccine is said to exude stability for a minimum of two weeks under temperatures of up to 37 degrees Celsius or 99 degrees Fahrenheit.
Experts say that the tropical weather conditions of West African nations would be the ideal place to use the vaccine. This is the region that was worst hit by Ebola in 2014 resulting in the greatest epidemic attack ever.
The clinical trials for the drug were carried out in December 2014 after obtaining permission from the Chinese regulatory authorities. This development and the approval for trials for the vaccine to fight the disease is said to have placed China among the global leaders in vaccine development for Ebola.
However the incidents of Ebola infection seemed to have bedded down in 2015 as there has been no new recorded cases reported within a week in October 2015 in the three West African countries where the significant outbreaks were noted. This is the first time that such a thing has happened ever since the epidemic broke out in 2014.
A successful Ebola vaccine has already been developed by Merck and NewLink Genetics, which exuded a 100 percent effectivity rate in a clinical trial in Guinea in July 2015.
A clinical study in Sierra Leone earlier in October 2015 has been started by U.S. pharma company Johnson & Johnson and the said vaccine will come in a two-shot formulation.
Apart from the plans to mass produce the Ebola vaccine, China has offered to donate $120 million and 500 medical personnel and experts to affected nations since the Ebola outbreak started.
The fight to find a vaccine for Ebola virus has reached clinical trial stages and a new vaccine is being tested for the first time in Europe on volunteers at a Spanish hospital in Madrid. In the tests 40 health workers are being checked to see if they develop any side effects.
It had been 100 percent effective when the same vaccine was used on 4,000 people in Guinea according to the World Health Organisation.
The vaccine development program is aimed to develop one ‘that works, that would be only one dose, and that could be applied on the ground’.
One of the participants, who also happened to be a doctor said that after test he only experienced a fever which came and easily went from the vaccine.
Recently a British nurse who seemingly made a full recovery but is now critically ill after the virus re-emerged has made the researchers believe that much more needs to be learnt about the Ebola virus.
The worst ever outbreak of a disease of epidemic proportions happened in 2013 which killed more than 11000 people within a span of one year and infected more than 28000.
(Sources: www.theguardian.com & www.techtimes.com)
