盖茨基金会5000万美元助力埃博拉疫苗研发

美国盖茨基金会最近宣布将紧急提供5000万美元用于加速埃博拉药物的研发进程。此举旨在尽快开发出有效疗法以控制正在西非蔓延的埃博拉疫情。

此次盖茨基金会发言人未具体指出哪些研究机构会获得资助，但是他表示这笔资金将主要用于资助开发埃博拉疫苗、特效药物以及检测方法的公立和私立机构，此外还有部分资金将通过联合国机构和国际组织用于直接援助几内亚、塞拉利昂和利比里亚等埃博拉疫区。与此同时，根据世界卫生组织统计的结果，截止到9月8日，此次埃博拉疫情死亡人数已经达到了2288人之多。

然而，根据世界卫生组织提供的数据，如果要彻底控制此次疫情并对今后埃博拉再次爆发做出妥善处理，国际社会至少要投入6亿美元以上。不幸的是，即使是目前投资最多的美国也仅仅投入了1亿美元左右。因此，盖茨基金会的紧急援助虽说是雪中送炭，但是仍然远远不够。WHO最近警告说，如果国际社会迟迟无法筹集足够的经费，那么此次埃博拉疫情最终的感染人数将很可能超过2万，这无疑是一场灾难。

目前葛兰素史克公司与美国NIH合作开发的埃博拉疫苗目前正处于临床一期研究阶段，而强生公司与其合作者Bavarian Nordic开发的疫苗项目也正在争分夺秒的进行中，但最快也仅能在2015年初投入使用。此外， Mapp Biopharmaceutical公司开发的抗埃博拉病毒特效药ZMapp也获得了约2500万美元的资助以解燃眉之急。

As government health agencies and industry players ramp up efforts to bring experimental therapies as quickly as possible to people affected by the Ebolaoutbreak in West Africa, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said Wednesday that it is putting up $50 million to aid drug development and outbreak response efforts.

That money will be distributed to public and private sector partners to advance the development of therapies, vaccines and diagnostics that could be effective in treating patients and containing the spread of the disease, the organization said.

The death toll of the current outbreak has now topped 2,288 people, according to a Sept. 8 update from the World Health Organization.

The rest of the funds will be split among United Nations agencies and international organizations involved in the Ebola response to help countries purchase supplies and scale up emergency operations in those that have been hit hard by the virus, like Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The initial announcement from the foundation didn't offer specifics as to which organizations will be receiving funds.

While the grant will provide much-needed resources to various international stakeholders responding to the Ebola outbreak, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the $600 million that the United Nations said it would take to get the ongoing epidemic under control. The U.S. has spent just over $100 million in efforts to help control the disease, which WHO warns could cause as many as 20,000 infections as it runs its course.

Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) is beginning a Phase I clinical trial of its Ebola vaccine in healthy people this month with the help of the National Institutes of Health. Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), along with partner Bavarian Nordic, is also rushing toward a vaccine, with plans to launch clinical trials at the beginning of 2015. And Mapp Biopharmaceutical's investigational Ebola drug ZMapp is getting a $24.9 million boost from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to help speed development and manufacturing of the treatment.