Global health organisation CEPI will provide around $60 million to Moderna and two other partners to speed up the development of vaccines targeting the Ebola Bundibugyo strain, which is currently driving an outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which played a key role in financing vaccine development during the COVID-19 pandemic, said it aims to accelerate early-stage testing of candidate vaccines within months, despite the absence of any approved treatment for the strain.
CEPI head Richard Hatchett said it may be possible to prepare Ebola Bundibugyo (BDBV) vaccine candidates for clinical trials within “a couple of months,” though he cautioned that development timelines remain uncertain, particularly given security constraints in eastern Congo.
“There are currently no approved BDBV vaccines or treatments,” Hatchett said, adding that the prospect of vaccines on “a not infinitely distant horizon” could help advance planning on funding and procurement.
CEPI said up to $50 million will support Moderna’s investigational BDBV vaccine candidate, including preclinical and early clinical development, as well as potential manufacturing scale-up and later-stage trials if early results are positive.
The organisation will also allocate up to $8.6 million to a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and an initial $3.2 million to a candidate developed by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
IAVI’s single-dose candidate uses a platform similar to Merck’s approved Ebola vaccine Ervebo, which targets the Zaire strain. The organisation said early animal studies have shown survival benefits, but it remains unclear who will lead clinical trials.
CEPI said earlier outbreaks, including West Africa’s 2014-2016 epidemic, demonstrated the need for rapid deployment capacity, but warned that financing and logistics remain major challenges.
Separate funding commitments have also been made by Gavi, which pledged up to $50 million for response efforts, while the World Bank’s Pandemic Fund has announced grants of up to $220.6 million.
Hatchett said ensuring equitable access will be the next major challenge once vaccines are developed, noting that hundreds of thousands of doses were required to control previous Ebola outbreaks in the region.
The announcements come as health agencies continue to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Congo, which has so far recorded 282 confirmed cases and 42 deaths, alongside around 1,100 suspected cases under investigation, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Nine additional cases have also been confirmed in Uganda, including one death, raising concerns about cross-border transmission.
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Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 12th of August, covering the latest developments....
One hundred years after the First World War and more than eighty years after the devastation of the Second World War gave rise to the United Nations, humanity once again finds itself living in an age of permanent crisis.
Flights arriving at Catania airport in eastern Sicily were suspended after volcanic ash from a new eruption of Mount Etna drifted into the airspace around the airport, disrupting operations at one of Italy’s busiest aviation hubs.
Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has surpassed $1.1 billion at the global box office, becoming the highest-grossing film of the director’s career.
U.S. President Donald Trump has called for Iran to pay compensation for decades of deaths and damage, adding a new demand to peace talks as Tehran seeks compensation and sanctions relief before reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The Democratic Republic of Congo says the number of confirmed Ebola cases has risen to nearly 4,500, including more than 2,060 deaths. Delayed detection, weak surveillance, funding shortages and conflict have allowed the virus to spread faster than in any previous epidemic at the same stage.
Australia warned on Monday (3 August) of a wider spread of H5N1 bird flu after its first confirmed mass mortality event among seabirds killed about 50 greater crested terns off the coast of South Australia, south of Adelaide.
Cancer patients in Sudan are struggling to access life-saving treatment as soaring medication costs, power shortages and damaged hospital infrastructure deepen the country's healthcare crisis after more than three years of war.
The world risks a resurgence of the HIV epidemic after international funding fell by nearly a fifth last year, according to a new report from UNAIDS, which warned that decades of progress against the disease could be reversed without renewed global support.
A global shift towards healthier diets, more efficient farming and reduced food waste could cut greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture-related land-use change by 85% by 2050, according to a study published last week in the journal Nature.
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