The first Anti-Ebola vaccine that really works is also a neapolitan success Interview with Rachel Cooper, Global External Communications Manager and Communications and Government Affairs at Glaxo Smith Kline

The first Anti-Ebola vaccine that really works is the result of many years of work of the team of Professor Riccardo Cortese -from Naples- flanked by American researchers, carried out in the laboratories of Okairos in Pomezia -Rome- (Group Glaxo Smith Kline) in collaboration with the IRBM Science Park, CEINGE of Naples, the CNR and the University Federico II.

This research, which led to the first vaccine against Ebola, began 14 years ago with an unconventional model of research and development: a vaccine that does not work through the induction of antibodies, but on a genetic logic, and that opens important new experiments aimed at research and development of vaccines to combat other serious epidemics, such as hepatitis c, malaria, avian flu, human flu and tuberculosis.

GSK (Glaxo Smith Kline pharmaceutical industry) bought the patent ensuring mass production of the vaccine.

We have interviewed  Rachel Cooper, Global External Communications Manager and Communications and Government Affairs at Glaxo Smith Kline to know something more about this revolutionary vaccine.

Your pharmaceutical industry, Glaxo Smith Kline, has purchased the patent for Anti-Ebola vaccine, assuring mass production; can You tell us about that your adventure and a bit of all the men who took part?

“GSK acquired the vaccine candidate through its acquisition of Okairos in May 2013. Prior to that, Okairos had been co-developing it with the US National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC) since 2011.

Along with the VRC and with support from other international organisations including the Wellcome Trust and Oxford University, we are fast-tracking initial clinical trials of the Ebola vaccine candidate. Simultaneously, we are starting to manufacture around 10,000 additional doses of the vaccine.

The current public health emergency we are facing requires us to act very fast and to begin manufacturing at a scale and in a timeframe we would not have planned or predicted just a few months ago. The support of the international consortium has enabled us to do that”.

Your vaccine has already obtained the consent for testing by WHO (the World Health Organization)? It is already on the market?

“There is no vaccine or treatment available. The vaccine candidate is still at a very early stage of development with initial safety trials having just started in the US and the UK. The aim of these trials is to see if the vaccine candidate is safe and whether it generates a good immune response to Ebola in humans before it can be rolled out to larger at-risk populations. It normally takes 10 years to develop a vaccine; with our partners, we are working to fast-track this process”.

How works the vaccine and what may be its contraindications?

“The candidate vaccine uses a chimp ‘cold’ virus to deliver a single Ebola virus protein to generate an immune response. Pre-clinical research has indicated that it provides promising protection in non-human primates without significant adverse effects. Safety trials with small groups of healthy volunteers are now required to ensure the vaccine does not cause unforeseen side effects, and that it generates a good immune response to Ebola in humans before it can be rolled out to larger at-risk populations. The vaccine itself does not contain infectious Ebola virus material and it cannot cause a person who is vaccinated to become infected with Ebola virus”.

I read on newspapers that your vaccine would pave the way for other important alternative experiments aimed at research and development of vaccines designed to combat other serious epidemics such as hepatitis C, malaria, avian flu, tuberculosis and human flu. What are you working on? What are the press reports that are true, and what are your news/ innovations that You can tell us?

“With our acquisition of Okairos, we gained a novel vaccine platform technology which we expect to play an important role in the development of new vaccines. We also inherited some early stage vaccines against diseases such as Ebola, RSV, malaria, TB, HIV and Hepatitis C which we’re working to develop”.

Luigi Ventriglia (Magazine “Lo Strillo”, November - December 2014)