Global coalition fast-tracks three Ebola vaccines with 62 million dollar funding
An international group led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has announced 62 million dollars in funding to advance the development of three vaccine candidates in response to the growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to STAT News, the effort targets the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no licensed vaccine currently exists.
The outbreak, which began in the Bandundu province of Democratic Republic of Congo, has progressed in the past three months with more than 320 suspected cases and 130 deaths. According to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the overwhelming majority of cases are of the Bundibugyo strain, for which few clinical-stage studies exist, including the Sabin Vaccine Institute candidate developed in 2007.
CEPI CEO Dr Richard Hatchett told STAT News that 'one of the weakest points in global health infrastructure is the lack of adequate vaccine stockpiles for emerging virus strains; this funding aims to narrow that gap.' Hatchett added that the coalition has provided over 1.3 billion dollars in funding to vaccine development programmes for 17 different pathogens since its founding in 2017.
Two of the three companies benefiting from the funding are the American firm Sabin Vaccine Institute and the Janssen Pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson, and the third is the Belgian IDT Biologika. The rVSV-Sudan candidate developed by Sabin was included due to its cross-protective effect against the Bundibugyo strain. The Ad26.ZEBOV-MVA-BN-Filo two-dose regimen from Janssen was a candidate granted conditional approval by the European Medicines Agency.
Congo's Minister of Health Dr Roger Kamba said in a national television address that 'support from the international coalition is strengthening our outbreak response effort.' Kamba noted that 78 percent of healthcare workers immunised against the current outbreak have been reached and that community-level deployment of the vaccines is planned as soon as they become available.
In the context of outbreak security, STAT News reported that officials of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wrote in a letter of concern to the White House last month that Ebola-related travel restrictions were deterring volunteer healthcare workers. CDC Deputy Director Dr Mandy Cohen said 'of the 47 healthcare workers expected to join our outbreak response team, only 12 have been able to obtain their visas so far.'
The regional spread risk of the outbreak in Congo has prompted neighbouring Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi to tighten their screening protocols. WHO Africa Regional Director Dr Mohamed Yakubu commented that 'strategies for developing cross-reactive vaccines against virus strains in the Filoviridae family represent an important investment approach that extends beyond the outbreak.' Yakubu also noted that a 24-hour case-reporting procedure is being implemented to prevent the outbreak from spilling into neighbouring regions.
Looking at the details of the funding plan, CEPI contributed 35 million dollars, the Wellcome Trust 15 million dollars and the Norwegian Government 12 million dollars. Wellcome Trust CEO Dr John-Arne Røttingen said 'the volatility of funding to combat pandemic threats shows that we need a sustainable framework for global health security.' Røttingen said the organisation's annual 1.6 billion dollar in grants has included 18 percent on global health security spending over the past three years.
In third-party assessment, Dr Caitlin Rivers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Public Health Policy said 'the absence of vaccine readiness for the current outbreak shows the weak link at the foundation of the biological threat preparedness system.' Rivers stressed that the concentration of vaccine development capacity globally in North America and Europe is a structural problem.
Turkey's membership in the CEPI alliance for global outbreak preparedness places it among the funding partners, according to the Turkish Ministry of Health. Dr Hülya Konak, a representative of the General Directorate of Health Policies in Ankara, said 'Turkey's contribution to the coalition's outbreak preparedness efforts is ongoing, but we plan to expand our work on developing domestic vaccine capacity, particularly for viruses of the Filoviridae family.' This article does not constitute personal medical advice; public-health decisions should follow the guidance of local health authorities.