Blaise Genton, a scientist in Lausanne, Switzerland, is paying volunteers 800 Swiss francs ($845) to be injected with the leading experimental Ebola vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline. The pharmaceutical company is looking for 120 research subjects (healthy adults); 50 have signed up so far. The experimental shot is “based on a live version of a genetically modified chimpanzee virus that contains an Ebola gene.”
Most of the 50 volunteers so far are colleagues of Genton – doctors and medical students. Genton told reporters in Lausanne: “Tests this month at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the University of Oxford and in Mali…so far identified no serious side effects.” Minor side effects have included soreness at the point of injection, a mild fever and headaches.