Overview
- On Thursday, Hilleman Laboratories said it will manufacture tens of thousands of doses of an experimental rVSV vaccine for early-stage human trials using starter material from IAVI and technical advice from Merck.
- The effort is backed by CEPI funding that also supports separate Oxford and Moderna Bundibugyo vaccine programs, signaling a multi-pronged push to find an effective shot.
- World Health Organization experts have flagged single-dose rVSV as the most promising platform for Bundibugyo because it is based on the same technology as the licensed Ervebo Zaire vaccine.
- Merck’s Tarit Mukhopadhyay said doses could be ready for clinical testing by the end of the year while randomized treatment trials of remdesivir and the MBP134 antibody are already under way.
- Large operational hurdles in eastern DRC, including conflict, community mistrust, limited diagnostics and cold-chain needs, mean ready-made doses would not guarantee fast or broad protection despite the outbreak’s scale of about 3,360 cases and 1,487 deaths.