Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Business

Federal Government Conducts Clinical Trials Of Ebola Vaccine And Approves More Diagnostics


Agencies push advances to fight, detect deadly disease

by Andrea Widener , Britt E. Erickson
October 31, 2014 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 92, Issue 44

[+]Enlarge
Credit: David Tulis/UPINewscom
Dallas nurse Amber Vinson recovered from Ebola.
When a cell receptor yanks on the Chen group’s DNA probe (top scheme)—which is made of a single unit—the hairpin opens, the fluorophore and quencher separate, and the fluorophore emits light. This light emission is a measure of the force applied. The same thing happens when a cell pulls on the Salaita group’s DNA probe (bottom scheme), which is composed of three DNA pieces, including a hairpin.
Credit: David Tulis/UPINewscom
Dallas nurse Amber Vinson recovered from Ebola.

Federal agencies are intensifying efforts to create or approve new tools to help combat the deadly Ebola epidemic, which is raging through three West African countries.

This week, NIH and the Department of Defense announced an early clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine, the second new trial in as many months. FDA also cleared the way for two new diagnostic tests for the disease.

The NIH/DOD Phase I clinical trials will test a vaccine, VSV-ZEBOV, developed by Canada’s Public Health Agency and licensed to NewLink Genetics Corp. of Ames, Iowa. The drug is a version of the vesicular stomatitis virus that has been genetically engineered to express the outer protein of the Zaire Ebola virus strain.

The study at NIH’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., will examine the safety of and immune response to two doses of the vaccine. The DOD trial at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md., will study the effects of a single dose. Results are expected by the end of 2014.

FDA’s emergency approval of two new diagnostic tests brings the number available in the U.S. to five. The newest approvals for rapid testing are from BioFire Defense of Murray, Utah. One test allows hospitals to conduct a polymerase chain reaction in-house to look for Ebola. The other can examine whole-blood specimens from patients who are presumed to have Ebola.

FDA is actively working with other developers to augment diagnostic capacity, Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg says.

The agencies’ efforts come amid reports that the epidemic may be slowing in Liberia.

In the U.S., two nurses who came down with the disease after caring for an Ebola patient have recovered, but a doctor infected while treating the stricken in Guinea remains hospitalized in New York City. The handful of cases in the U.S. has triggered partisan debates over the power, reach, and competency of federal health agencies.

Moves by several states to quarantine health care workers who looked after Ebola patients in Africa were met with fears that these actions will discourage others from volunteering to help fight the epidemic overseas.

“We don’t just react based on our fears,” President Barack Obama says, criticizing the state quarantine policies. “We react based on facts and judgment and making smart decisions.”

Advertisement

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.