Johnson & Johnson Ebola vaccine development receives €100m from Innovative Medicines Initiative
The funds will support several groups working together on a total of four projects
Johnson & Johnson says newly formed groups supporting the company's development of a vaccine for Ebola will receive grants totalling more than €100m from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)'s Ebola+ programme to speed up the process.
Funding for this project comes in part from Horizon 2020, the European Union's research and innovation programme, and in part in the form of in-kind contributions from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) partners in the projects.
The groups include the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, INSERM, University of Oxford University, La Centre Muraz, Bavarian Nordic, Vibalogics, the Grameen Foundation and World Vision of Ireland, which will work with Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, a Johnson & Johnson company, to help accelerate the development of the Ad26 – MVA Ebola vaccine.
'In the face of the global challenge of Ebola, bringing together the expertise and capabilities of the pharmaceutical industry, academic centres and NGOs will be critical to help solve this crisis,' said Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer and Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson.
The funds will support several groups working together on a total of four projects. Three of the projects are designed to address the need to accelerate Phase I, II and III trials and scale up production of the prime-boost vaccine regimen. A Phase I trial led by Oxford Vaccines Group is currently underway with trials in Africa being planned. The Phase II and III trials in Europe and Africa, subject to review of the preliminary Phase I data, will be carried out in parallel.
A fourth project will investigate innovative ways and technology to raise awareness and acceptance of vaccination campaigns. A total of eight projects are being funded under this round of the IMI's Ebola+ programme.
In October last year, Johnson & Johnson committed up to US$200m to accelerate and significantly expand production of an Ebola vaccine programme in development at Janssen. The company has been seeking to share the financial risk of these vaccine and development clinical trial costs by pursuing governmental and non-governmental funding sources.
