A made-in-Canada experimental Ebola vaccine is still sitting in a Canadian laboratory instead of being dispensed in West Africa because of an intellectual property dispute by the U.S. company that purchased a licence to the vaccine’s commercialization from the Canadian government..
More than six weeks ago the Canadian government promised to donate the vaccine to the international community to help fight the ongoing Ebola outbreak.
According to a Science Magazine article by Kai Kupferschmidt the delay comes from New Link Genetics which bought the rights to the vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
In the article Brian Wiley, vice president of business development at NewLink Genetics, says the company is doing all it can. “Our program has moved forward at an unprecedented pace”. He says the holdup is “the administrative process”: agreeing on a protocol, getting collaborators to sign the right contracts, securing insurance in case something goes wrong, writes Kupfershmidt.
In Canada’s House of Commons on Thursday (October 2), Official Opposition NDP leader Thomas Mulcair raised the issue of Canada’s delayed Ebola vaccine. The government was saying the delay was because of the World Health Organization. But Mulcair suggested another reason: “according to a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, that might not be the only reason. It reports that African trials of this Canadian vaccine have in fact been delayed, not because of logistical problems but over an intellectual property dispute. The company that owns the commercial licence for the drug is said to be dragging its feet.
“With thousands of lives at risk, can the Minister of Health explain what Canada is doing to ensure this vaccine gets to the people who need it immediately?”
Eve Adams, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health repeated the government answer: “Mr. Speaker, Canada has been very generous in our response to this terrible outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. We have donated 800 to 1,000 doses of this vaccine, and it is up to the World Health Organization to organize the logistics in dispensing these vaccines.”
More information:
Science Magazine/Kai Kupferschmidt – Ebola vaccine tests needlessly delayed, researchers claim – here
CBC News – Could Ebola vaccine delay be due to an intellectual property spat? – here
Global News – Is an intellectual property dispute delaying Canada’s Ebola vaccine? – here
Hansard Debate – October 2, 2014 – here
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