Photo Courtesy of J&J
Photo Courtesy of J&J
Photo Courtesy of J&J
Photo Courtesy of J&J
Photo Courtesy of J&J

J&J Aiming to Produce 1 Million Doses of Ebola Vaccine in 2015

Oct. 22, 2014
The proposed vaccine regimen combines a preventative vaccine from J&J's Janssen division, with a vaccine from Bavarian Nordic, a biotechnology company based in Denmark. 

NEW YORK --- Johnson & Johnson (IW 500/17) on Wednesday said it would spend up to $200 million to speed up and expand its Ebola vaccine program, with testing slated to begin in January.

Johnson & Johnson said its unit Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies was closely working with the World Health Organization, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as other key stakeholders, governments and public health authorities on the program.

The proposed vaccine regimen combines a Janssen preventative vaccine with a vaccine from Bavarian Nordic, a biotechnology company based in Denmark. The vaccine combination was discovered in a collaborative research program between Janssen and the National Institutes of Health.

"This combination vaccine regimen has shown promising results in preclinical studies, and is now planned to be tested for safety and immunogenicity in healthy volunteers in Europe, the United States of America and Africa starting in early January," said J&J.

Janssen plans to produce more than one million doses of the vaccine regimen in 2015, and 250,000 of them are expected to be released for broad application in clinical trials by next May.

"We are urgently working to provide our vaccine expertise, production capabilities, our people and resources to address the Ebola crisis," said Alex Gorsky, J&J's chairman and chief executive.

"Our innovation model enables us to quickly mobilize our extensive resources to collaborate with health authorities and governments and other experts to help contain this disease, save lives, and protect the health and lives of those at risk."

The spreading Ebola virus outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people since the start of the year, almost all of them in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014, IW Staff

Popular Sponsored Recommendations

Empowering the Modern Workforce: The Power of Connected Worker Technologies

March 1, 2024
Explore real-world strategies to boost worker safety, collaboration, training, and productivity in manufacturing. Emphasizing Industry 4.0, we'll discuss digitalization and automation...

3 Best Practices to Create a Product-Centric Competitive Advantage with PRO.FILE PLM

Jan. 25, 2024
Gain insight on best practices and strategies you need to accelerate engineering change management and reduce time to market. Register now for your opportunity to accelerate your...

How Manufacturers Can Optimize Operations with Weather Intelligence

Nov. 2, 2023
The bad news? Severe weather has emerged as one of the biggest threats to continuity and safety in manufacturing. The good news? The intelligence solutions that build weather ...

Transformative Capabilities for XaaS Models in Manufacturing

Feb. 14, 2024
The manufacturing sector is undergoing a pivotal shift toward "servitization," or enhancing product offerings with services and embracing a subscription model. This transition...

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of IndustryWeek, create an account today!