This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Experimental Ebola vaccines granted US legal immunity
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Three experimental Ebola vaccines have received legal protection from liability and compensation claims, according to a press release.
Under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Department of Health and Human Services secretary, announced that the investigational vaccines are immune from claims and legislation within US courts. The declaration is expected to give drug manufacturers additional incentive to prioritize Ebola treatment.
“My strong hope in issuing this PREP Act declaration in the United States is that other nations will also enact appropriate liability protection and compensation legislation,” Burwell said in a press release. “As a global community, we must ensure that legitimate concerns about liability do not hold back the possibility of developing an Ebola vaccine, an essential strategy in our global response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.”
The three experimental vaccines are:
- GlaxoSmithKline’s ChAd3-EBO-Z
- BioProtection Services’ rVSV-ZEBOV-GP
- Janssen’s Ad26.ZEBOV/MVA-BN-Filo vaccine
The PREP Act was signed in 2005, and it previously has issued, revised or renewed 14 declarations. Past declarations included influenza A(H5N1) vaccine trials in 2008, influenza A(H1N1) products in 2009 and botulism antitoxins in 2008.