GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson Join Forces To Make Millions Of Ebola Vaccine Doses

October 22, 2014

By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson will work together to ramp up production of an Ebola vaccine, with an aim to produce at least 1 million doses next year, an executive with Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday.

So far, there is no proven vaccine for Ebola, but many pharmaceutical companies have been working on experimental drugs that show promise.

Paul Stoffels, the U.S. group's head of research, said the firms would work in tandem to support each other’s research and even combine vaccines if that made sense scientifically or was more effective.

"I have spoken with (GSK chief executive) Andrew Witty over the past few days several times as colleagues on how we are going to solve this," Stoffels told reporters. "It might even be that we have to combine their vaccine with ours."

J&J has been working on its Ebola vaccine in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and includes technology from Danish biotech Bavarian Nordic, which saw its shares leap 20 percent in early morning trading on the news.

J&J has said that it will produce 250,000 doses by May. Analysts have projected that Bavarian Nordic could rake in more than $187 million in deal value from infusion poured in by Johnson & Johnson during the production.

The World Health Organization (WHO) currently puts the total of fatalities from Ebola at 4,500, with most of the dead in West Africa, including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. England, Germany, Spain, Norway and the U.S. have all seen cases in recent months.