🔬 After more than two decades of research, the world finally has an approved Ebola vaccine

“It is a historic milestone and a testament to the power of science, innovation and public-private partnership,” Frazier said, adding the company will work with the Food and Drug Administration in the United States and regulatory agencies in a number of African countries to license the vaccine.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:

“This is great news that will change Ebola prevention in the future and protect the vulnerable,” Tedros, as he is known, said about the European approval.

The vaccine, which protects against the Zaire species of Ebola, was designed at Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory with funding from the U.S. government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Dr. Heinz Feldmann led the research.

For years Feldmann worried neither this nor any other Ebola vaccine would be made, because there isn’t a traditional market for such a product. Outbreaks are sporadic and typically occur in countries that cannot afford to pay the prices that might be attached to a vaccine that is sold in limited numbers of doses.

Read more at STAT.