Moderna and other groups get $60 million to develop Ebola vaccine

Global Health Group CEPI Directs $60M to Moderna and Partners for Ebola Vaccine Push. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has announced it will allocate roughly $60 million to Moderna and two other organizations. The funding aims to accelerate the development of vaccines against Ebola Bundibugyo (BDBV), a deadly virus strain currently sweeping through the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

CEPI, a global health organization, was notably one of the early investors that helped rapidly develop vaccines at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Richard Hatchett, head of CEPI, stated on Monday that it is entirely possible to have Ebola Bundibugyo vaccines ready for clinical trials within a couple of months. Currently, there are no approved vaccines or treatments for the BDBV strain.

Hatchett noted that the promise of vaccines on "a not infinitely distant horizon" should jump-start critical conversations regarding procurement and the funding of eventual rollouts. However, he cautioned that vaccine development remains inherently unpredictable, and the challenging security situation in eastern Congo will complicate clinical trials.

The Scale of the Outbreak

According to data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization (WHO), the situation on the ground is escalating:

Democratic Republic of Congo: 282 confirmed cases, 42 deaths, and approximately 1,100 suspected cases.

Uganda: 9 confirmed cases, including one death.

Global health agencies have officially declared the outbreak a public health emergency.

Early Clinical Testing of Moderna Vaccine Candidate

As part of the initiative, CEPI has committed up to $50 million specifically to support the preclinical and early clinical development of Moderna’s investigational BDBV vaccine candidate. Moderna confirmed that the funding will also support manufacturing and progression to later-stage trials, provided early data proves positive.

"We have worked on Ebola in preclinical models showing great results," Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel said in an interview.

Given the high lethality of Ebola, Bancel explained that the objective is to create a vaccine that successfully prevents the disease while keeping the dosing strategy as simple as possible.

At this stage, it remains unclear whether the vaccine will require one or two doses. This variable will be evaluated during Phase 1 trials before moving into larger-scale studies, which Bancel noted would need to be conducted in Africa.

"Our goal is to move as fast as we can without compromising safety, and to be as helpful as we can," Bancel added.

Diversifying the Vaccine Pipeline: Oxford and IAVI

In addition to the Moderna partnership, CEPI is diversifying its approach by investing in two other promising vaccine candidates:

University of Oxford & Serum Institute of India: CEPI will invest up to $8.6 million for a shot utilizing the ChAdOx1 technology—the same platform behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI): An initial $3.2 million will be allocated to IAVI's single-dose Bundibugyo vaccine candidate.

IAVI’s candidate leverages the same technological framework as Merck’s approved Ervebo vaccine, which targets the Zaire strain (the first Ebola strain discovered in the region formerly known as Zaire, now the DRC). The IAVI candidate has already demonstrated survival benefits in animal studies.

Operational and Funding Hurdles Ahead

Despite the technological promise, structural challenges remain. IAVI CEO Mark Feinberg stated in a press briefing that it is still unclear which partners will be responsible for organizing or conducting the clinical trials.

While the 2014–2016 West African Ebola outbreak saw heavy trial management from U.S. agencies and the WHO, Feinberg indicated a shift in strategy. "We understand from the WHO more recently that they won’t be assuming that role in the future," Feinberg said, adding that it would require "tens of millions of dollars until we’re in a position to enter the clinic." The WHO did not immediately clarify its stance on trial sponsorship.

Nevertheless, there is precedent for speed. Hatchett pointed out that during a different outbreak last year (Rift Valley Fever in Mauritania and Senegal), Oxford and the Serum Institute demonstrated they could have trial-ready doses produced in about six weeks—a massive improvement over traditional timelines that normally take years.

Logistics and Global Backing

Once a vaccine succeeds in trials, the next hurdle will be ensuring immediate access to the areas that need it most. Hatchett recalled that it required 300,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine to successfully bring the 2018–2020 Ebola Zaire outbreak under control in a similar region of Congo.

The international community is scaling up financial support to meet these demands. Separately, the global vaccine alliance Gavi recently committed up to $50 million to the Ebola response, while the World Bank’s Pandemic Fund announced up to $220.6 million in grants. -Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Vijay Kishore, Devika Syamnath, Barbara Lewis and Joe Bavier/Reuters