EBOLA VACCINE TIMELINE

2002 An Ebola vaccine is born. Three years earlier, the Public Health Agency of Canada recruited a German scientist named Dr. Heinz Feldmann to work at its new lab in Winnipeg. Under Feldmann’s leadership, the special pathogens department develops a new vaccine for not just Ebola but also a related virus called Marburg. June 5, 2005 The Ebola vaccine is tested in non-human primates for the first time. In Nature Medicine, Feldmann and his collaborators report they gave the experimental vaccine to four macaques, which were then infected with Ebola. All four survived. 2010 The Canadian government licenses the vaccine, dubbed VSV-ZEBOV, to a little-known U.S. company called NewLink Genetics. Four years later — with the West African outbreak in full swing and NewLink coming under intense pressure to speed up development — the company signs a deal with drug giant Merck to take over work on the vaccine. Aug. 8, 2014 More than four months after the Ebola outbreak was announced, the World Health Organization declares a global health emergency. Many consider this a turning point in the emergency and the global community finally ratchets up its response to the deepening crisis. Aug.11 The WHO strikes a committee to discuss the possibility of using untested vaccines and therapies in the Ebola outbreak. Another meeting is soon held involving more than 200 experts, who agree that time-consuming protocols for testing new drugs and vaccines should be skipped due to the scale of the Ebola emergency. Oct. 20 After more than two months of delays, the Canadian government sends its first shipment of experimental vaccine to the WHO in Geneva. Altogether, 800 vials are donated to the UN health agency for use in clinical trials. Nov. 10 In Switzerland, three doctors and a World Health Organization employee become the first people injected with the Canadian-developed vaccine. They are the first of 115 volunteers in a Phase I clinical trial to test the safety of the vaccine; parallel trials also kick off in Germany, Kenya and Gabon. March 23, 2015 Phase III clinical trials begin in Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak first began. Ultimately, more than 7,600 volunteers join the study, with the WHO training more than 250 Guinean workers in just two weeks. Friday A Lancet paper announces the trial’s early results: the vaccine has been 100 per cent protective for people who received an injection. WHO official Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny cautions these are only interim results but agrees the vaccine "could be a game changer" in the fight against Ebola.