WHO has approved trials of two new Ebola vaccines

Expert groups convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) have recommended that two new vaccines developed to fight Ebola be included in the clinical trials under way in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

This is the first time that vaccines created specifically to protect against the Bundibugyo virus, the cause of the current outbreak, will be tested directly in field conditions, 1news.az reports citing the UN News Service.

The vaccines are ChAdOx1, developed by the University of Oxford together with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna's mRNA-1469. This week WHO's independent advisory group on the prioritization of candidate vaccines recommended both products for further clinical evaluation on the basis of the available preclinical and early clinical data.

"The readiness of these vaccines to move into the clinical trial stage is a testament to the power of science and international partnership. I thank the scientists, health workers and partners in the DRC and around the world who have helped reach this point, and especially the trial participants," the UN News Service quotes WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as saying.

The trials will assess several candidate vaccines at once under a single protocol. The scientists will use a "ring vaccination" strategy, in which people who have been in contact with patients with confirmed disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus are enrolled in the study.

The approach builds on the experience gained by WHO and its partners during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa ten years ago. The study carried out in Guinea at that time confirmed the effectiveness of the Ervebo vaccine. Ervebo is the first vaccine whose testing within the current study aims to assess how effectively it works against the Bundibugyo virus.

Potential treatments are being tested in parallel. One of the studies supported by WHO is assessing whether the monoclonal antibody MBP134, the antiviral drug remdesivir or a combination of the two can improve survival among patients with the disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus. The drug maftivimab will also be added to the study shortly, to assess its potential as a therapy. A separate study of post-exposure prophylaxis using the drug obeldesivir is under way as well.

The first results of the treatment studies are expected in the coming months, while the vaccine trials will be summed up in early 2027.