With these and other "made-in-Canada" vaccine projects, Canada is beginning to outstrip many prominent European nations in the fields of applied virology and bacteriology.
Ebola vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV appears to be 100 per cent effective in early human trials in the West African country of Guinea, where 4,000 people have been inoculated against the hemorrhagic fever.
By adopting a “ring” approach to inoculation during field trials – immediately vaccinating everyone who has come into contact with Ebola victims in order to halt the spread of the disease – researchers are finding the vaccine highly promising as a means to limit future outbreaks of the “Zaire” strain of Ebola. Since rVSV-ZEBOV is made in Canada, and since the government of Canada sponsored the clinical trials in West Africa, these results represent a major achievement for federally funded vaccine research in this country.
In recent years, Canadian government scientists have brought about promising developments in the search for vaccines and post-infection cures. The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine was created by Public Health Agency of Canada researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, an institution credited with developing promising post-infection experimental Ebola cure ZMapp, and experimental vaccines for Lassa and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers. The federally funded Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has helped bring similar successes in sponsoring the development of a candidate vaccine for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and in devising research models in support of therapeutic cancer vaccines.
One factor has made these accomplishments possible: significant federal funding for domestic laboratory research and international scientific collaboration. In 2014, Ottawa announced funding for the rVSV-ZEBOV clinical trials in Guinea and Sierra Leone, and the inoculum used in the trials was manufactured by the American-based Merck and NewLink Genetics pharmaceutical companies. The government has also committed $102 million for HIV vaccine research under the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, a collaborative project between the federal government and the Bill and Melina Gates Foundation. Earlier this year, Health Canada invested $1 million in Canadian vaccine research to support influenza inoculation research at a Saskatchewan laboratory with strong ties to the international research community.
With these and other “made-in-Canada” vaccine projects, Canada is beginning to outstrip many prominent European nations in the fields of applied virology and bacteriology, and the current government can claim responsibility for much of this success. However, recent cuts to federal science programs, and recent changes to the way the CIHR distributes its annual 1 billion dollars in research funding, may bring about a reversal of this trend. Last year, the CIHR reduced researcher access to funding by reorganizing the 13 research institutes so that they compete with each other for grants; in many cases, grantees must match CIHR funds with funding from private sector sources, which makes it more difficult for academics or others working outside federal laboratories to develop viable vaccines without relying too heavily upon industrial partners.
MPs from Canada’s three opposition parties have pledged to reverse some of these changes and the spending cuts implemented over the past nine years of Conservative governance. At a press conference in June, the NDP’s Kennedy Stewart, the opposition’s science and technology critic, promised to take steps to restore the positions of many of the several thousand federal scientists who have lost their jobs since 2009. The Green party’s Elizabeth May and Liberal MP Marc Garneau made similar pledges. It will be interesting to see if any of these promises are kept in the event that one of these parties wins a majority in the election this fall.
In order to ensure that rVSV-ZEBOV is not Canada’s last vaccine success story, our new government – whichever one that is on October 19 – must take steps to ensure that our scientists have access to the funds they require to develop vaccines domestically, and to engage in vital international collaboration with other vaccine researchers.
December, 2013 – The “Zaire” strain of Ebola, a disease first discovered in 1976, returns to Guinea, spreading to Liberia in March 2014, Sierra Leone in May, and Nigeria in July. The World Health Organization estimates that over 11,200 people have died during this outbreak (2013-July/August 2015).
November 2014 – The Canadian government announces $23.5 million in funding for Ebola research and treatment in West Africa.
March 2015 – After early positive results in early human trials, the Phase III human trials for the made-in-Canada rVSV-ZEBOV experimental vaccine begin in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
August 2015 – The Lancet publishes an interim study of the trials showing that rVSV-ZEBOV appears to have protected 4000 people who had come into contact with 100 Ebola victims. While Phase III trials are still underway, the vaccine appears to be the world’s first effective experimental vaccine for Ebola.
June 2015 – At an “Evidence for Democracy” press conference in Ottawa on June 16, NDP M.P. Kennedy Stewart, Green Party M.P. Elizabeth May, and Liberal MP Marc Garneau pledge to reverse the current government’s cuts to science funding.
Isabel Wallace is a sessional lecturer in history at Trent University.