US gives $99m for Ebola jab project, as cases spread in Africa

The US federal government has awarded $99 million in funding for a one-shot vaccine against the Bundibugyo virus (BDBV), the cause of the ongoing Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The money has been pledged to nonprofit vaccine group IAVI and partners Hilleman Laboratories, SK Bioscience, and IDT Biologika and will finance manufacturing of IAVI's BDBV vaccine candidate based on recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV), a live, attenuated viral vector platform already used in MSD's licensed Ervebo vaccine for the Zaire species of the Ebola virus.

Single-dose vaccines may offer practical advantages during outbreaks by allowing rapid vaccination without the logistical requirements of a multidose regimen.

News of the award comes as cases of Ebola in DRC have risen above 10,000, with almost 5,000 deaths, which the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has described as "unprecedented" in its scale.

The organisation's director general, Jen Kaseya, told The Guardian newspaper this week that the number of cases makes it likely that it could reach the UK and other countries outside Africa. Since the start of the outbreak, cases of BDBV have been encountered in Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria.

The funding from the US Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will also support phase 1 testing of IAVI's shot and a 'ring vaccination' trial in the DRC.

In this type of study, investigators identify a ring of people around an index case who are at high risk of infection, some of whom are vaccinated immediately while others get the shot after a delay. This allows results to be generated with fewer subjects and more quickly than regular randomised studies.

IAVI will lead the development programme for the rVSV BDBV candidate, while Hilleman will produce the initial doses needed for clinical testing. SK Bio would lead manufacturing scale-up with the help of IDT Biologika, which will carry out fill-finish of doses.

The new project comes a few months after the industry-backed Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) made $60 million available for clinical trials of three experimental BDBV vaccines, with Moderna's mRNA candidate claiming $50 million of the fund.

The remainder is going towards a jab being developed by the University of Oxford and Serum Institute of India ($8.6 million), and the IAVI's candidate ($3.2 million).

Earlier this year, the WHO named the Oxford and IAVI candidates among several priority drug and vaccine candidates for clinical development against BDBV.