A high-level emergency meeting, convened by the World Health Organization at the request of several governments and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, was held on 23 October to look at the many complex policy issues that surround eventual access to experimental Ebola vaccines. Ways to ensure the fair distribution and financing of these vaccines were discussed in an atmosphere characterized by a high sense of urgency. This sense of urgency was conveyed in many ways – from plans for the different phases of clinical trials to be performed concurrently rather than consecutively, to suggested partnerships for expediting clinical trials, to proposals for getting all development partners moving in tandem and at the same accelerated pace.