The vaccine alliance Gavi announced on Monday that it will provide up to $50 million through the First Response Fund (FRF) to support the response to the ongoing Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak, with the bulk of the funding going to accelerate access to vaccines against the current strain.
Of the total allocation, up to $40 million will be used to accelerate vaccine development and access, while another $10 million will be used to support outbreak response efforts.
“Although we are still some way away from a safe and effective vaccine against the Bundibugyo virus, we need to act now to ensure that once one or more of the vaccine candidates are ready, manufacturers will be in a position to start producing doses at scale,” said Sania Nishtar, CEO of the Gavi Alliance.
“By leveraging this allocation, Gavi will work closely with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and partners to design appropriate incentives to achieve this goal, exploring all options including potential advance purchase commitments,” she added. “This effort, along with ensuring emergency funds are available to support outbreak response and protect routine immunization services in affected communities, is exactly what our First Response Fund is designed to do.”
The Enhanced Financing Fund is the only globally approved mechanism that allows “at-risk” financing for the large-scale production of vaccines still under development.
According to Gavi, the additional funding of $40 million will enable manufacturers of the pioneering Bundibugyo vaccine to commit to high-capacity production ahead of regulatory approval. This is expected to ensure that research doses can be deployed quickly if clinical trials show positive results. The coalition also plans to incentivize manufacturers to pursue the fastest paths to WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) and Prequalification (PQ), key approvals needed for wider deployment during future outbreaks.
“In the coming weeks, Gavi will finalize the design of a financial mechanism that will leverage the FRF’s $40 million allocation in close partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, WHO, Africa CDC and UNICEF,” the organization said in a statement. The mechanism could include advance purchase commitments and would be tailored to the needs of individual vaccine candidates and manufacturers. Successful African vaccine makers may also receive rapid support through the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), Jaffe said.
Additionally, Gavi will immediately release $10 million to support national outbreak response plans, including measures to protect routine immunization services, protect healthcare workers, and prepare countries for eventual vaccine deployment.
At present, no vaccine against Ebola Bundibugyo virus has been licensed. According to the World Health Organization, the most promising candidate is the single-dose rVSV Bundibugyo vaccine being developed by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), although it is unlikely to be ready for efficacy trials for another seven to nine months.
Another candidate, ChAdOx1 Bundibugyo, being developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, could be available for efficacy evaluation within two to three months, although additional animal data is still needed.
WHO experts also reviewed the potential role of Ervibo, the licensed Ebola vaccine approved to combat the outbreak caused by the most common type of Ebola virus in Africa. However, the UN health agency said that Ervibo is not licensed to treat Bundibugyo disease, and that evidence of protection against other Ebola virus types remains limited and inconclusive.
