WHITEHOUSE STATION (dpa-AFX) - Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) said Friday that its investigational Ebola vaccine candidate, rVSV-ZEBOV, was found to have 100% efficacy in an analysis of interim data from a Phase 3 ring vaccination trial in Guinea.
Preliminary conclusions from the study, which is continuing, were published in The Lancet. The authors report that vaccine efficacy was 100% following vaccination with a single dose of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine. It appeared that all vaccinated individuals were protected against Ebola virus infection within 6 to 10 days of vaccination.
To date, more than 4,000 participants have received the vaccine in the innovative trial, called 'Ebola ça suffit' or 'Ebola, that's enough.' The trial was conducted by a team that included researchers from the World Health Organization, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the Health Ministry of Guinea and Médecins sans Frontières, among others.
The results from the continuing study, as well as other studies already underway and additional studies to be conducted, will be used to support worldwide regulatory submissions, Kenilworth, New Jersey-based Merck said.
The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine was initially engineered with support from the Public Health Agency of Canada and was licensed to NewLink Genetics Corp.
In late 2014, when the current Ebola outbreak was at its most severe, Merck licensed rVSV-ZEBOV from NewLink Genetics.
The latest outbreak of the disease in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone has 27,872 reported cases resulting in 11,295 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
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