CEPI Fast-Tracks Three Bundibugyo Ebola Vaccine Candidates as Congo and Uganda Outbreak Spreads

Efforts are ramping up to develop a vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola as a deadly outbreak spreads in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, with more than 1,100 people infected and nearly 250 suspected to have died.

“In short: Efforts have ramped up to develop a vaccine for the rare strain of Ebola amid a deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo”

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The World Health Organization said it would take seven to nine months before the new vaccine will be ready to be tested on humans, and WHO experts determined "the most promising candidate vaccine" was a single-dose shot using the rVSV platform.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The outbreak is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC and is just the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

CEPI announced funding to "fast-track" development of three Bundibugyo vaccine candidates, including one on the University of Oxford’s ChAdOx1 platform that WHO said could become available for clinical trials within two to three months.

CEPI said it would invest up to $62 million to back a portfolio of candidates under development from longstanding partners, including candidates developed by IAVI, Moderna, and the University of Oxford, manufactured at the Serum Institute of India.

Health Policy Watch reported that IAVI was awarded $3.2m to accelerate the development of a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV)-based vaccine candidate, and it said the candidate "has “demonstrated protective efficacy in nonhuman primate studies but has not yet been evaluated in humans"."

BBC

The BBC described how IAVI’s modified approach uses a live, but harmless virus engineered so it also has the Ebola glycoprotein, while Moderna uses its mRNA technology and the University of Oxford works on its own vaccine technology.

BBC also quoted Stéphane Bancel saying, "We will move with urgency and scientific rigor to support the response and help bring a potential vaccine closer to the communities that need it most," as CEPI funding supports the early stages of research.

Beyond vaccines, the Health Policy Watch report said the DRC Ministry of Health described a "rapidly evolving situation" with cases and deaths notified in several health zones of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, and it listed persistent challenges including early detection and isolation of cases and contact tracing.

“- Published Three new vaccines are being developed to tackle the rare species of Ebola that has already killed nearly 250 people”

BBC

That same report said Kenya’s High Courtsuspended a US plan to set up an Ebola quarantine facility for US citizens in the Laikipia region, after an urgent court challenge by Katiba Institute and the Kenya Law Society.

In a statement carried by Health Policy Watch, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union said, "We will not sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen that we did not generate."

The BBC framed the stakes by quoting Dr Mark Feinberg warning that the outbreak is "clearly threatening to be as severe an outbreak as that, if not even worse," and it quoted Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying, "A Bundibugyo vaccine could help to control this epidemic and strengthen preparedness for future outbreaks."