South Korea-based International Vaccine Institute (IVI) has joined Bayer AG and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to support Egypt's Minapharm Group in advancing the development of a Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine candidate, in response to the current outbreak and to prepare for future ones.
Through its ACHIEVE Africa initiative, IVI will support Minapharm as the vaccine candidate progresses toward clinical evaluation in Africa, working with relevant African health and regulatory institutions.
The vaccine candidate was designed by ProBioGen, a Berlin-based Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation and one of Minapharm’s subsidiaries, using their proprietary Modified Vaccinia Ankara vaccine platform, MVA-CR19. The underlying technology is designed to enable the rapid development of new vaccine candidates that could also be adapted to respond to other outbreaks.
With no currently licensed vaccine against Bundibugyo, Minapharm’s vaccine candidate is part of a portfolio of investigational Bundibugyo-specific vaccines backed by CEPI to help tackle the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to prepare for future Bundibugyo outbreaks.
CEPI has awarded up to $16.5 million in funding to advance Minapharm’s Bundibugyo vaccine candidate through preclinical development and into an early-stage clinical trial to assess its immunogenicity and safety. Preparations for the trials are underway with regulatory activities coordinated by the African Medicines Agency.
