Prime Highlights
- Hilleman Laboratories will manufacture an experimental Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine with funding support from CEPI.
- The vaccine could enter early clinical testing by the end of the year as global efforts to contain the outbreak increase.
Key Facts
- Hilleman Laboratories is a Singapore-based vaccine research and manufacturing joint venture between Merck and Wellcome.
- The Bundibugyo Ebola strain currently has no approved vaccine or treatment, prompting multiple global vaccine development programmes.
Background
Singapore-based Hilleman Laboratories, a joint venture between Merck and Wellcome, has now started the preparation of doses of an experimental vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola amid the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A grant worth up to $8.5 million from CEPI is being awarded to Hilleman Laboratories for vaccine production and preclinical studies.
More than 3,300 individuals have been infected, and nearly 1,500 have died due to Bundibugyo Ebola infection. No vaccines or treatments exist against the said strain. Hence, we must find an antidote for the virus as soon as possible.
The experimental vaccine has been developed by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). It uses the same recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) platform as Merck’s approved Ervebo vaccine, which protects against the Zaire strain of Ebola. Hilleman Laboratories will convert the vaccine material supplied by IAVI into finished doses for early clinical trials, while Merck will provide technical and manufacturing support.
The partners expect doses to be ready for clinical testing by the end of the year. Hilleman Laboratories has the capacity to produce tens of thousands of doses for research, with plans to transfer the technology to a larger manufacturer if wider production becomes necessary.
CEPI is also supporting vaccine programmes led by the University of Oxford and Moderna to accelerate the development of protection against Bundibugyo Ebola. At the same time, researchers are testing several experimental medicines as global health organisations strengthen efforts to contain the outbreak.
