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LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest drugmakerGlaxoSmithKline said on Saturday work to develop avaccine to combat Ebola, which has killed thousands in WestAfrica, was moving at a rapid pace.
"Development of the vaccine candidate is progressing at anunprecedented rate, with first phase 1 safety trials with thevaccine candidate underway in the USA, UK and Mali, and furthertrials due to start in the coming weeks," the firm said in astatement posted on its website.
The company said preliminary data from the trials wasexpected by the end of 2014 and that, if successful, the nextphase, involving the vaccination of frontline healthcare workersin Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, would begin in early 2015.
The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed more than4,500 people so far, most in the trio of West African countries.
In August, GSK said the experimental vaccine was beingfast-tracked into human studies and it planned to build astockpile of up to 10,000 doses for emergency deployment, ifresults were good.
The GSK vaccine consists of a common cold virus, called anadenovirus, engineered to carry two genes of the Ebola virus.
Animal testing has shown that when the adenovirus infectscells the Ebola genes produce harmless proteins that stimulatethe immune system to produce antibodies to Ebola.
GSK acquired the vaccine after buying Swiss-based biotechcompany Okairos for 250 million euros ($319 million) last year.
Responding to public fears after three diagnosed cases inthe United States, President Barack Obama urged Americans onSaturday not to give in to "hysteria" about the haemorrhagicfever, which is spread through the blood, sweat or vomit ofthose infected.
There is no cure or approved vaccine yet for Ebola butseveral pharmaceutical companies have been working onexperimental drugs. (Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Andrew Roche)
