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Canada's Ebola Vaccine Has its Roots in 9/11

It all started with the threat of a biological weapons attacks.

Canada just began shipping 800 vials of its experimental Ebola vaccine to the World Heath Organization in Geneva. The vaccine—at the forefront of the fight against the deadly disease that has already killed over 4,500 people in West Africa—actually has its roots in military research from scientists tasked with defeating potential biological weapons attacks.

After the events of September 11, 2001, the Canadian government made it a priority to protect citizens against "new and emerging threats" like biological weapons wielded by terrorists.

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And at on the heels of the anthrax letter attacks, the Canadians began an initiative involving military and government scientists ordered with, "investigating medical countermeasures against threats such as Ebola."

But, as a Defence Research and Development Canada release suggests, developing vaccines and antibody treatments for diseases like Ebola that traditionally affect small amounts of the global population has little potential commercial value.

Related: This Mathematical Model From 2006 Shows How Ebola Could Wipe Us Out

"The potential impacts are staggering if such a disease is used as a weapon or an outbreak spreads beyond a smaller, contained population," said the DRDC release. "These scenarios are highly unlikely and the cost of bringing medical countermeasure to market is very high. This means the likelihood of return on investment is poor, which can generally make research in such areas less appealing to Industry."

Regardless of the monetary return on its vaccine research, the Canadians still committed seven million dollars in research over 11 years "developing solutions to the Ebola threat."

Part of that DND investment helped ensure the development of the VSV-EBOV Ebola vaccine (recently shipped to the WHO), and research associated with the experimental antibody treatment ZMapp given to two American aid workers who contracted Ebola during the latest outbreak.

"They recognized a need and funded the initial research that made ZMapp and the VSV-EBOV vaccine possible," said Dr. Gary Kobinger, chief of special pathogens with the Public Health Agency of Canada in the release.

But it's not all international goodwill from the Canadians when it comes to the latest vaccines. With a public health crises possibly on the brink in western countries, Ebola vaccines suddenly have greater monetary value, which is likely why the Government of Canada is retaining a monetary interest in the VSV-EBOV vaccine.

"The Government of Canada maintains ownership of the intellectual property associated with the vaccine," said the latest release on the vaccine.

In other words, while 9/11 might've kicked off the security state in America and Canada, it also gave birth to a potential vaccine for a biblical virus that could eventually give Canada a serious payday.