Via Sun News

A made-in-Canada Ebola vaccine is ready for human trials, Health Minister Rona Ambrose announced Monday.

Forty healthy volunteers in the United States will undergo testing in Maryland to determine any side-effects associated with the VSV-EBOV vaccine.

“This is promising and hopeful news,” Ambrose said. “It provides hope because, if it’s shown to be safe and effective, it can stop an outbreak.”

Canada, which owns the intellectual property associated with VSV-EBOV but has licensed the rights to NewLink Genetics in Iowa, has supplied 20 vials of the experimental vaccine for use in the trial.

“There is not live (Ebola) virus in the vaccine,” said Dr. Greg Taylor, chief public health officer, adding anyone who signs up for the clinical trial “will not get Ebola.”

There are further trials scheduled in December and January, he said.

HT JettieG