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9h ago

Moderna Starts Phase 1 Trial in Canada for Bundibugyo Ebola Vaccine

The move launches rapid safety testing for a strain with no approved vaccine; favorable early results would allow larger trials and shape potential supply for low‑income countries.

Members of the Civil Protection, a local community-based team that works to help mitigate the spread of the Ebola virus and ensure burials happen safely and quickly, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), carry a wooden coffin before loading the body of an unidentified man, who according to his family, died of Ebola, as they attend to retrieve it from his house, as aid agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, in Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 10, 2026. REUTERS/Gradel Muyisa Mumbere
BERLIN, GERMANY - JUNE 09: Nurses dressed in personal protective equipment demonstrate the admission of a dummy patient at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Critical Care Medicine at Charite Hospital on June 09, 2026 in Berlin, Germany. The Charite department recently treated American doctor Peter Stafford, who survived his infection with ebola that he had contracted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Health workers disinfect a coffin of an Ebola victim at Ebola Treatment Center at Bunia General Hospital in Ituri, Congo, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)
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Overview

  • Moderna began dosing the first volunteers Tuesday in a Health Canada‑authorized Phase 1 study of mRNA‑1469 at three Canadian sites to assess safety, dose and immune response in about 80 healthy adults.
  • Health Canada cleared the study to evaluate side effects and antibody response and emphasized that Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials will be required before any approval or wider use.
  • The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has committed up to $50 million to support early testing and manufacturing, and Moderna has pledged at least 500,000 doses for low‑ and middle‑income countries if the vaccine is approved.
  • The trial targets Bundibugyo ebolavirus, the strain driving a fast‑growing outbreak in eastern DRC that WHO and Africa CDC have declared a public health emergency and that has produced several thousand confirmed cases and more than 1,600 confirmed deaths.
  • This study joins parallel early trials and WHO‑backed treatment studies; practical obstacles on the ground such as security, community trust and strained health systems mean any protective impact in the DRC will depend on months of successful testing and regulatory review.