Johnson starts Phase I trial of Ebola vaccine regimen

Patient enrollment is scheduled to be completed by the end of January in this trial, which is being led by the Oxford Vaccine Group, part of the University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics.

The company also said that Janssen, in partnership with Bavarian Nordic, has produced over 400,000 regimens of the prime-boost vaccine for use in large-scale clinical trials by April 2015.

Johnson & Johnson chief scientific officer and worldwide chairman Pharmaceuticals Paul Stoffels said: "Because every day counts, we are substantially accelerating the production of our vaccine regimen.

"Through the unprecedented collaboration among the global health community, our goal is to bring this vaccine to families and frontline health care professionals as fast as possible."

The trial is designed to assess the safety and tolerability of a prime-boost vaccine regimen, in which patients are first given a dose to prime the immune system, and then a boost intended to improve the immune response over time.

During the trial, different regimens combining the vaccine components or placebo will be evaluated in around 72 healthy adult volunteers.

Oxford Vaccine Group and the study leader Dr Matthew Snape said: "We’ve been working at an unprecedented pace together with our partners to significantly accelerate our efforts.

"Initiating this study in the space of eight weeks represents a critical leap forward in being able to rapidly develop an Ebola prime-boost vaccine regimen, and these results will be vital to the design of future studies in broader populations."