WASHINGTON, October 22 (RIA Novosti) – Johnson & Johnson, one of the largest US manufacturers, will commit up to $200 million to produce an Ebola vaccine, the company announced on Wednesday.
"Our goal to produce more than a million vaccines in the next few months is within reach," Chief Scientific Officer of Johnson & Johnson Paul Stoffels said in a press release.
Stoffels pointed out that "Ebola is a significant and growing threat to the people of West Africa and it has the potential to impact people around the world. We are committed to bringing our science, technology, innovation and resources to help prevent and treat this deadly disease".
Johnson & Johnson plans to produce more than a million doses of the vaccine by 2015 and release about 250,000 clinical trials of the vaccine by May 2015.
Johnson & Johnson is working in close collaboration with the World Health Organization, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and other stakeholders, governments and public health authorities to produce the vaccine.
The current Ebola epidemic, one of the current global security threats, started in southern Guinea in February and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal, with several Ebola cases having been reported outside of West Africa. Last week, the WHO confirmed that the outbreak in Senegal is now over. Earlier this week, Nigeria was also declared Ebola-free.
There is currently no official vaccine for the disease that has claimed the lives of over 4,500 people, according to the WHO.
