Ebola vaccine candidate advances for DR Congo outbreak

A Singapore-based organisation said Thursday it will advance an Ebola vaccine candidate for human trials as the Democratic Republic of Congo faces a deadly outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain.

Hilleman Laboratories said it would develop the single-dose shot, which is based on the rVSV platform. World Health Organization experts have described the candidate as the most promising option for the Bundibugyo strain.

The organisation said it was working to make doses for clinical trials. It is a joint venture between US pharmaceutical company MSD, known as Merck in North America, and the British charity Wellcome Trust.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has pledged funding for the rVSV shot and other Ebola vaccine efforts. Hilleman and CEPI said that if early trials succeed and the vaccine is authorised, they hope to ensure rapid and affordable supply in outbreak-affected countries and low- and middle-income settings.

The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccines or treatments. DR Congo has recorded 3,360 confirmed cases, including 1,487 deaths, since May, with the outbreak centred on the northeastern Ituri province. Uganda, which borders Ituri, has recorded 20 confirmed cases, including two confirmed deaths.

The rVSV vaccine uses a modified version of vesicular stomatitis virus, an animal virus, to deliver a Bundibugyo ebolavirus protein to the human immune system and trigger an immune response.

WHO experts cautioned in May that it would likely take seven to nine months before the rVSV vaccine is ready to be assessed in a clinical trial. A different Bundibugyo vaccine being developed by Oxford University entered a rapidly launched clinical trial a week before Hilleman's announcement.