Ebola vaccine doses to be stockpiled for emergency outbreak use

Nurses working with the WHO prepare to administer an experimental vaccine following an Ebola outbreak in northwestern Mbandaka, DR Congo on May 21, 2018. PHOTO | JUNIOR KANNAH | AFP 

In Summary

• The stockpiling will start with Merck’s newly developed Ervebo vaccine, which won regulatory approval last month.

By REUTERS
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The global vaccine alliance Gavi said on Thursday it had agreed to fund and create a $178 million stockpile of Ebola vaccines for emergency use in outbreaks.

The aim is for a global stock of 500,000 doses of vaccine against the deadly haemorrhagic fever, Gavi said in a statement.

The stockpiling will start with Merck’s newly developed Ervebo vaccine, which won regulatory approval last month.

The plan is for poor and middle-income countries to be able to access the stockpile free of charge, Gavi said, while other countries will need to refund the cost of any vaccines used.

Gavi is a public-private partnership backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, Unicef and others, which arranges bulk buys to reduce vaccine costs for poor countries.