HALIFAX – A Halifax company involved in making an Ebola vaccine said Wednesday it is one step closer to human trials.
The National Institutes of Health approached Immunovaccine a few months ago to discuss a vaccine using its patented ‘Depovax’ technology.
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Depovax forces the immune system to process the vaccine over a longer period of time, which the company said generates a stronger immune response to the Ebola virus.
Earlier this year, Immunovaccine conducted a preliminary study with four monkeys that received a lethal dose of Ebola. They also were given two doses of the Depovax-formulated Ebola vaccine. All the vaccinated animals survived while the unvaccinated animals died.
Now the company is moving ahead with another study, also using monkeys, using only one dose of the vaccine.
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“Can the vaccine produce protection with a single dose?” said Marc Mansour, CEO of the Immunovaccine. “We’re looking at our data from the first study and we could see there is an immune response in these animals that suggest that it’s going to be protected with one dose.”
Mansour said the data from the second study is expected by early 2015. He said in the meantime, the company is also working on a Phase 1 clinical trial involving humans.
“We’re doing the studies now to accelerate entry into the clinical trials. We’ll probably be talking to the regulatory agencies very soon about our proposal,” he said.
Mansour said he expects human trials to take place in either Canada or the United States within the first half of 2015.
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