NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK)

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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2014/11/06/newlink-genetics-ebola-vaccine-trials/18590029/


An Ebola vaccine licensed by Ames-based NewLink Genetics has been "well-tolerated" in early human trials, the company's chief executive said today.

NewLink Genetics is developing an Ebola vaccine based off of initial work done by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Phase 1 trials on healthy, human volunteers to test the vaccine's safety are underway at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring and at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda.

"The first dose level in healthy volunteers at Walter Reed Medical Center has been completed and next dose level has begun. The vaccine was well-tolerated thus far, but the study is ongoing," NewLink CEO Charles Link said on a conference call with analysts Thursday.

The World Health Organization also said today that Swiss authorities approved trials of the NewLink-Canadian Ebola vaccine, which is known as VSV-EBOV.

The Swiss trials will start next week and involve 115 healthy volunteers in Geneva, Switzerland. Some of the volunteers will be sent as health care workers to West Africa, where Ebola has killed an estimated 4,800 people.

If the vaccine is deemed safe, both Link and the WHO have said larger scale trials will be conducted in Africa by early next year.

Ebola vaccines from other companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline, are also going through early trials.

Link spoke to analysts when presenting third quarter financial results Thursday. NewLink primarily focuses on the development of cancer therapies to boost the immune system's ability to fight tumors.

The company of about 120 employees has received more attention recently because of its work on the Ebola vaccine.

"We therefore find ourselves in one of the great infectious disease crises of our age," Link said during Thursday's call.

Link also said the company is "exploring the potential for collaboration with a larger pharmaceutical company that could complement and enhance NewLink's development of the Ebola vaccine in this time of crisis and beyond."