Ebola Vaccine Trials Carry Risks for Companies in Chase
By Robert Langreth, Shannon Pettypiece and Caroline Chen Oct 21, 2014 9:14 AM PT
Each of the Ebola vaccines being lined up for testing carries potential downsides, researchers say, ranging from efficacy that faded in less than a year to the chance it will give healthy people flu-like symptoms. In a worst-case scenario, they could do more harm than good.
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Because they are given to healthy people, vaccines have the potential to do more harm than good if serious unexpected effects occur, said Ben Neuman, a virologist at the University of Reading in the U.K. In 2007, for example, Merck & Co. halted trials of once-promising AIDS vaccine after a study found that people who got the vaccine may have been more likely to contract HIV than those who got a placebo shot.
In Ebola, a vaccine that creates an immune response that isn?t precisely targeted to shut down the virus might make it easier for the virus to infect healthy cells, Neuman said...
