CEPI funds $8.5m Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine push at Hilleman Labs
A new $8.5 million funding commitment from CEPI will accelerate Hilleman Laboratories' production of a Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine candidate, highlighting the escalating financial and operational burden of the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record.
CEPI has committed up to $8.5 million to Hilleman Laboratories to manufacture clinical trial doses of a vaccine targeting the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. The funding, announced on July 30, targets a virus that has killed 1,521 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since mid-May.
Hilleman Laboratories, a Singapore-based joint venture between MSD and the Wellcome foundation, will produce the doses at its own facility. The vaccine uses the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) platform, the same technology behind MSD's licensed Zaire ebolavirus vaccine.
The speed of the current outbreak is driving the urgency for pharmaceutical intervention. With 3,442 confirmed cases, the DRC epidemic is spreading far faster than previous Bundibugyo incidents, putting severe pressure on regional health infrastructure. More than 80% of available treatment beds in the DRC are occupied, with 797 people currently in hospital or isolation.
The crisis has already triggered significant economic disruptions, including Uganda's decision to close parts of its border with the DRC in late May. Uganda has since declared itself Ebola-free after containing an imported case, but the World Health Organization has rolled out a $518 million six-month emergency response plan for the region.
If early-stage clinical trials succeed, CEPI and Hilleman Laboratories plan to transfer the technology to a large-scale vaccine manufacturer. This represents a potential future contracting opportunity for major pharmaceutical companies capable of rapidly producing doses for later-stage trials and deployment.
“No vaccine is currently approved against the virus, so we are urgently advancing vaccine candidates into testing,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer of CEPI. “Built on the rVSV platform used in the licensed Zaire ebolavirus vaccine and supported by established manufacturing expertise from Hilleman and MSD, this vaccine candidate could become an important tool for Bundibugyo outbreak control and response.”
