Wednesday, October 29, 2014

The Ebola Vaccine Underdog

NewLink Genetics, an immunotherapy company based in Ames, Iowa, has reportedly developed an Ebola vaccine. On October 23rd, 2014, a high level meeting was held by the World Health Organization. Several NewLink representatives reported that their company might possibly have approximately 12 million vaccines by the beginning of April 2015.

Above: NewLink's CEO Charles Link

           NewLink is a privately traded company with a mere 120 employees. Their competition is GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), who also participating in the Ebola vaccine arms race. However, their initial estimates of Ebola vaccinations are at 230,000 doses by April 2015. From a capitalistic point of view, NLG, is positioning itself to profit significantly from the Ebola epidemic. NewLink's vaccine combines an Ebola gene with a weakened vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Because this is a livestock pathogen, this medium of vaccination is particularly risky.
           Ultimately, the big question in regards to the effectiveness of the Ebola vaccine is the dose amount. Scientists collectively agree that high doses are required in order to make the vaccine effective. NewLink's CEO Charles Link says his employees are experimenting with doses ranging from 10^4 to 10^8 virus particles in one vaccination. If 10^4 or 10^5 is effective at initiating an immunologic effect, then the company will have enough vaccines for West Africa, thus jumpstarting the healing process of an area devastated by this terrible epidemic.

Main Article: http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2014/10/ebola-vaccine-underdog

More Information: http://newlinkgenetics.com/

1 comment:

  1. Cool article, interesting how we can pop up vaccines so quickly once a disease scare happens in the US.

    ReplyDelete