The European Commission on Wednesday authorized the marketing of the Ebola vaccine from the Janssen laboratory, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, the second such treatment to receive the green light from the EU.
On the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency, the European executive has taken the decision to authorize the vaccine made up of two components, called Zabdeno and Mvabea.
Particularly intended for caregivers traveling to Africa, this vaccine was developed with the support of the European research program Horizon 2020.
The decision was quick, in one month, against two in normal times, explains the institution in a press release.
“It is the second Ebola vaccine the Commission has authorized in less than a year and confirms once again that the EU remains at the forefront of the global effort to save lives from the virus“, welcomed the Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
“We know very well, thanks to the coronavirus crisis, that viruses do not respect borders – protecting the health of others is protecting the health of all“, she said.
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In November, the Commission authorized the marketing of the vaccine from the American laboratory Merck under the trade name Ervebo on the EU market.
At the end of June, the Democratic Republic of the Congo offered itself a brief respite on the health front by proclaiming the end of its tenth Ebola epidemic, declared on August 1, 2018 in the east of the country, and which on Congolese soil has killed 2,287 people for 3,470 cases.
For the first time, vaccination has been widely used on more than 320,000 people, with the two vaccines not yet approved by Merck and Johnson & Johnson.
However, the virus remains active and a new outbreak was declared in May in the west of the country.
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