Drugmakers rush to prepare medicines

Pharmaceutical companies are reportedly rushing to prepare drugs for the virus. NBC reports that:

• Johnson & Johnson says it will begin safety testing in early January of a vaccine combination that could protect against an Ebola strain ‘highly similar’ to the virus that triggered the outbreak.
• Human trials of a vaccine co-developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and GlaxoSmithKline are being funded by GSK, its charitable trust and funds from the U.S. and UK governments. It is being tested for safety in the U.S., UK, and Mali.
• NewLink Genetics holds the license on a vaccine initially developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada that has been sent to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland for testing on healthy volunteers, with preliminary safety results expected by December.