Ebola crisis: GSK says vaccine not ready until 2016

UK pharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline says any Ebola vaccine it produces will come too late for the current epidemic.

GSK is one of several companies trying to fast-track a vaccine to prevent the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

Dr Ripley Ballou, head of GSK's Ebola vaccine research, said full data on its safety and efficacy would not be ready until late 2015 and any mass production would not start until 2016.

He told Simon Cox ,from the BBC's File on Four, his fear that without effective controls the epidemic had real potential to "spread to surrounding countries".

Simon Cox's full report on Ebola can be heard on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 21 October at 8pm