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STORY: GENEVA /EBOLA VACCINE
TRT: 2.17
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 SEPTEMBER 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior of Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Marie Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director General for Health Information and Systems:
“So we at WHO are working with many, many partners to try to accelerate three types of products. One is drugs, medicine. The other is blood-derived drugs, either whole blood or plasma. And the third one is vaccines. On drugs, we have had some work with experts to look at which are the products which are the nearest to having proven some utility, potentially for Ebola, and we are focusing on these.”
4. Close up, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Marie Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director General for Health Information and Systems:
“In terms of vaccines, there are several candidates but we are focusing in WHO mainly on two. One which is based on what is called chimpanzee adenovirus, which is a recombinant viral vector. This is developed by the company GSK. The other one is based on another virus which is called VSV and is developed by a company in the US called Newlink. It’s this second vaccine which has been donated by the Canadian government to the level of 800 vials to WHO. And what we are doing now is working with clinicians, with regulators, with both companies, to accelerate the clinical trials of these vaccines.”
6. Mid shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Marie Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director General for Health Information and Systems: “So we hope that we will have these results on both vaccines by the end of the year, before the end of the year, that would, again, this is pending everything going well of course, if everything goes well again we might be able to use some of these vaccines in affected countries at the beginning, the very beginning of next year, in January.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a potential vaccine against the Ebola virus might be ready for limited distribution in January 2014.
Dr Marie Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director General for Health Information and Systems told journalists in Geneva today (25 Sept)that there are several potential candidate vaccines but WHO is focusing on two.
One is based on chimpanzee adenovirus, a recombinant viral vector, developed by the company GSK. The other is based on a virus called VSV and is developed by a company in the US called Newlink.
WHO is working with clinicians, regulators and both companies to accelerate the clinical trials of these vaccines.
Dr Kieny said that she hopes WHO will have initial results on both of these potential vaccines by the end of the year and that, if everything goes well, vaccines should be available for limited groups of people, including medical staff, at the beginning of next year.
There are currently no vaccines or medicines approved by national regulatory authorities to tackle Ebola, except for the purpose of compassionate care.
WHO said that discussions are also beginning with countries infected by Ebola to see which areas will be the most suitable to test any new drugs and to establish as soon as possible which drugs give patients the best chance of survival.
To date, the virus has infected 6,242 people in West Africa. Of this number, 2,909 have died. WHO says that these figures vastly underestimate the true scale of the epidemic, which is the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times.
In August, a group of experts, convened by WHO, reached consensus that the use of experimental medicines and vaccines under the exceptional circumstances of the Ebola epidemic is ethically acceptable.
