Johnson & Johnson has formed a consortia with research institutions and non-government organizations to work in conjunction with Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies to accelerate the development of its Ebola vaccine regimen. The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) plans to award these consortia grants totaling more than EUR 100 million ($115 million) from the Ebola+ program to support the development, manufacturing, and patient education for the vaccine regimen.

The IMI is Europe’s largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. Funding for the IMI Ebola+ program comes in part from Horizon 2020, the European Union's research and innovation program, and in part in the form of in-kind contributions from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations partners in the projects.

The funds were announced to support several consortia 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+ program.

Organizations joining Janssen include the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), La Centre Muraz, Bavarian Nordic A/S, Vibalogics, Grameen Foundation, and World Vision of Ireland.

On January 6, 2015, Johnson & Johnson announced the start of a Phase I, first-in-human clinical trial of a preventive Ebola vaccine in development at its Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies. The trial is being led by the Oxford Vaccine Group, part of the University of Oxford Department of Pediatrics. Johnson & Johnson also announced that Janssen, in partnership with Bavarian Nordic A/S, has produced more than 400,000 regimens of the prime-boost vaccine for use in large-scale clinical trials by April 2015. A total of 2 million regimens is projected to be available through the course of 2015, with the ability to quickly scale up to a projected 5 million regimens, if required, over a 12- to 18-month period.

In October 2014, Johnson & Johnson announced a commitment of up to $200 million to accelerate and significantly expand production of an Ebola vaccine program in development at its Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies. 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.

Source: Johnson & Johnson