Ella Foundation, a not-for-profit research organisation, has announced that it has completed preliminary studies on an Ebola vaccine.
The vaccine candidate is a human adenovirus engineered to contain an optimised synthetic gene based on viruses from the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Its platform uses controlled production of the glycoprotein.
Krishna Ella, founder director & CMD of Bharat Biotech and Ella Foundation, said animal experiments with the candidate vaccine have been completed and these will be followed by pre-clinical toxicology and, then, clinical trials in humans. “We have developed a technology platform, which is highly complicated and similar to GSK Ebola vaccine. We hope that the government conducts the clinical trials and, later, we can assist in manufacturing, as we have a good facility,” Ella said.
The Ebola virus has a short ribbon-like structure and contains a coat studded with a spike-like protein called the glycoprotein, and immune responses against this protein can help protect against the disease.
Founded and funded by Krishna Ella and Suchitra Ella, Ella Foundation is among the two foundations from the Asian region to have won the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) grant, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates to foster innovation in global health research.
The foundation has a mandate to contribute to diagnosis, control and prevention of infectious diseases in man and animals. The foundation began research and development on the Ebola vaccine early November 2014.
“Availability of a vaccine should help India in its preparedness to combat the disease in case the virus lands on our shores. It would also be useful to protect our healthcare and military aid workers to African nations and attain worldwide immunisation goals.” Ella said.
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