Journal article
Is Canada patent deal obstructing Ebola vaccine development?
A decade ago, Canadian Government scientists invented a vaccine against Ebola virus (VSV-ZEBOV).1 That vaccine is based on a live attenuated vesicular stomatitis virus, and has several known advantages over the other vaccine candidates in clinical trials: first, in animals one inoculation suffices to confer immunity against lethal virus exposure, without a booster inoculation; second, the vaccine might work prophylactically if administered quickly after exposure; and third, it is replication-competent and therefore likely to be easy to manufacture quickly in large scale.2 Arguably, all this makes Canada\'s vaccine the most promising candidate for present circumstances.
However, rather than put this invention in the public domain, Canada\'s Minister of Health applied to patent the vaccine.3 Canada subsequently granted Bioprotection Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of NewLink Genetics, a \"sole, worldwide, revocable and royalty-bearing license\" to develop and commercialise the vaccine \"for the maximum commercial return to the Company and Canada\".4 This profit-driven arrangement does not put public health first.
Authors
Languages
- English
Publication year
2014
Journal
The Lancet
Volume
9958
Type
Journal article
Categories
- Vaccines & delivery devices
Diseases
- Ebola
Countries
- Canada
Tags
- New vaccine introduction
WHO Regions
- Region of the Americas