Good News: Dangote Working With Scientists To Provide Ebola Vaccine

Good News:Dangote Working With Scientists To Provide Ebola Vaccine

The Dangote Foundation is reportedly partnering with British researchers to release an Ebola vaccine by December

According to reports, a British researcher has said that an Ebola vaccine might be available in December.

Dr. Mike Turner told the Punch that his organization, Wellcome Trust is partnering with the Dangote Foundation to develop ways to fight the disease.

Dr. Turner is the Head of Infection at the non-governmental organization which is based in the United Kingdom and which facilitates medical research.

He reportedly said:

We are delighted that the Dangote Foundation is joining the Wellcome Trust and others in the international consortium of funders to develop a multi-pronged approach to combating Ebola.

This is a fast-moving scene at present and it is not yet clear precisely which partners will fund which components of the work that we hope will lead to new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.

What is more important is that the partners are all not just talking about the problems, but actually trying to make things happen and the future inevitable epidemics. If things go well, we hope to know whether this candidate vaccine is safe, with some prospect of protecting people by Christmas.

The vaccine that is being tested in Oxford, and then in The Gambia and Mali, is being given to the consortium by NIH. It was originally developed by a company called Okairos, which was taken over by GSK last year.

We are delighted that both NIH and GSK have been very open to sharing the vaccine and information about it with Oxford consortium, recognizing that by sharing we can collectively speed development,

Turner also reportedly added that the trust is working with the National Institutes of Health and GlaxoSmithKline in the US and testing would soon begin in Oxford, England, as well as two other African countries.