The race to develop the first vaccine to combat ebola has intensified, with a US firm investing a further $200m (£120m) to accelerate testing.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said it was aiming to produce one million doses to protect against the virus next year, 250,000 of which are expected to be available by May, if clinical trials in January are successful.
But it warned it would need additional partners to speed up production and its trial programme and that could even mean a collaboration with rival GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) - adding that talks had already taken place.
There is currently no proven vaccine against the deadly disease but several companies are developing products - vaccines which have provided protection against the aggressive strain in monkeys.
Clinical tests on two - from GSK and NewLink Genetics - are already under way with trials also due to begin at the start of 2015.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) hopes that tens of thousands of people in West Africa, including frontline healthcare workers at high risk of infection, can start receiving ebola vaccines from January as part of large-scale clinical trials.
West Africa's ebola outbreak began in March and has killed more than 4,500 people, most of them in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the WHO.
It believes that up to 1.4 million could have been affected by the virus by 2015.
J&J, which is best-known in the UK for its range of consumer products including soaps and cleaning wipes, has said it would test its vaccine for safety and immune response in healthy volunteers in Europe, the US and Africa.
Its chief executive Alex Gorsky said: "We have an important responsibility as a leading global healthcare company to do all we can to address this urgent unmet medical need."
Meanwhile, US photojournalist Ashoka Mukpo, who was working for American network NBC in West Africa, has recovered from the disease.
He is among eight people to have been treated for ebola on American soil - one of whom, a man from Liberia, had died.
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Gallery: The Desperate Fight To Contain The Ebola Outbreak
A man rests outside the clinic.
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A woman is comforted after medical officials remove her husband, who is suspected of having the disease.
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Officials try to prevent themselves from spreading the disease.
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A local who has just brought his brother to the centre. He had to rely on plastic bags tied around his hands to try to protect himself.
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A man thought to be infected with ebola waits for treatment.
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Patients wait to be seen by medical staff.
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Workers try to decontaminate themselves.
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A worker with a child who may have caught ebola.
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A makeshift hand-washing station in Monrovia.
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Decontaminated boots of medical staff.
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The basic conditions make containing the disease very difficult.
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