In 2017, in the face of a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ministry of Health approved the vaccines emergency use, but it was not immediately deployed. Effectiveness
In April 2019, following a large-scale ring-vaccination scheme in the DRC outbreak, the WHO published the preliminary results of its research, in association with the DRCs Institut National pour la Recherche Biomedicale, into the effectiveness of the ring vaccination program, stating that the rVSV-ZEBOV-GP vaccine had been 97.5% effective at stopping Ebola transmission, relative to no vaccination. Side effects
Systemic side effects include headache, feverishness, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, nausea, arthritis, rash, and abnormal sweating. Injection-site side events include injection-site pain, swelling, and redness. Biochemistry
rVSV-ZEBOV is a live, attenuated recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in which the gene for the native envelope glycoprotein (P03522) is replaced with that from the Ebola virus (P87666), Kikwit 1995 Zaire strain. Manufacturing of the vaccine for the Phase I trial was done by IDT Biologika. Manufacturing of vaccine for the Phase III trial was done by Merck, using the Vero cell line, which Merck already used to make its RotaTeq vaccine against rotavirus. History
Scientists working for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) created the vaccine, and PHAC applied for a patent in 2003. From 2005, to 2009, three animal trials on the virus were published, all of them funded by the Canadian and U.S. governments.
In November 2014, Newlink exclusively licensed rights to the vaccine to Merck for US $50 million plus royalties.The Phase I study started with a high dose which caused arthritis and skin reactions in some people, and the vaccine was found replicating in the synovial fluid of the joints of the affected people; the clinical trial was halted because of that, then recommenced with a lower dose.In March 2015, a Phase II clinical trial and a Phase III started in Guinea at the same time; the Phase II trial focused on frontline health workers, while the Phase III trial was a ring vaccination in which close contacts of people who had contracted Ebola virus were vaccinated with VSV-EBOV.In January 2016, the GAVI Alliance signed an agreement with Merck under which Merck agreed to provide VSV-EBOV vaccine for future outbreaks of Ebola and GAVI paid Merck US$5 million; Merck will use the funds to complete clinical trials and obtain regulatory approval. As of that date, Merck had submitted an application to the World Health Organization (WHO) through their Emergency Use Assessment and Listing (EUAL) program to allow for use of the vaccine in the case of another epidemic. It was used on an emergency basis in Guinea in March 2016.Results of the Phase III Guinea trial were published in December 2016.