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.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Thursday, while Israeli retaliatory attacks killed at least one per...
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, two key maritime chokepoints in the region, decreased significantly from t...
Azerbaijan is introducing new requirements for social media platforms, including a ban on account creation for users under-16 and mandatory age verifi...
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 5th of August, covering the latest developments.
U.S. President Donald Trump said there was an "all-day negotiation" on Tuesday with Iran, characterising the talks positively while also threatening to hit Iran "really hard" if a deal was not reached.
Tehran had made plans to strike sites in Ukraine after Kyiv attacked an Iranian cargo ship in the Caspian Sea, a senior Iranian military adviser has said. Iran refrained from taking action after Kyiv said the strike was a mistake, Mohsen Rezaei told the state IRIB TV channel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed the country's ambassadors to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and several other countries. The removals came after a speech on Monday in which he said embassies would be judged on their effectiveness in securing weapons for Ukraine.
U.S. data analytics firm Palantir Technologies has reported a 93 per cent year-on-year jump in second-quarter revenue, even as the company faces continued criticism over its work with Israel's military and allegations linking its technology to the war in Gaza.a.
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.
Venezuelan health authorities have confirmed that three people have died from hantavirus infections, while stressing there is no evidence that the disease is spreading between people in the country.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment