U-led group suggests ways to fast-track Ebola vaccines

An international team of vaccine experts has published a roadmap for fast-tracking the development of safe and effective Ebola vaccines for use in Africa. The group was convened by the University of Minnesota and the Wellcome Trust, a London-based charitable foundation.

The fast-track document is intended to compliment the vaccine development work already underway by manufacturers, regulators and public health agencies, including the World Health Organization. However, the so-called "Team B" group that created the fast-track document operates independently from those frontline vaccine efforts.

"We think that we are able to bring a slightly different perspective that is complimentary to what's going on," said Michael Osterholm who co-chaired the 26-member group.

Osterholm, director of the U of M's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, says Team Bs are supposed to challenge assumptions and bring fresh eyes to a difficult task.

"So if there's something being missed, it can be readily picked up," said Osterholm.

There are formidable challenges to accelerating the search for Ebola vaccines from figuring out the right vaccine dose to making sure that the product is safe and can be produced in sufficient quantities.

The Team B report suggests dozens of ways regulators could hasten the development of Ebola vaccines in Africa.

Among the group's recommendations:

• Focus on monovalent vaccines in the near term that are designed to protect against a single strain of Ebola
• Evaluate all promising vaccines in clinical trials
• Consider frontline workers as a priority group
• Promote West African leadership
• Match strategies to each country
• Ensure transparency
• Consider stockpiling vaccines for future use

Ebola has been around since the mid-1970s but vaccine development efforts have been slow, partly because previous outbreaks have been small. That changed with the massive outbreak in West Africa last year.

Several Ebola vaccine candidates are already being tested in humans. But the declining incidence of Ebola disease in West Africa may make the vaccine quest more challenging.

"If you don't have a large number of cases it's going to take much longer before you can actually determine: Does this vaccine work or not?" said Osterholm.