Africa: Two New Candidate Vaccines to Join Ebola Trial As Treatment Research Advances

What the report says

The World Health Organization says expert groups have recommended adding two new Ebola vaccine candidates to the ongoing Tumaini clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the report, this is the first time vaccines built specifically to target Bundibugyo virus, the strain behind the current outbreak, will be tested during an active outbreak. The candidates are ChAdOx1, developed by the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469.

WHO said its independent technical advisory group reviewed preclinical and early clinical evidence before recommending both vaccines for further study. The candidates will move into the trial after national approvals. The trial is being led by the DRC’s Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, with support from the University of Antwerp, WHO, Epicentre, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tumaini uses a ring-vaccination design, enrolling contacts of people with confirmed Bundibugyo virus disease. The approach builds on earlier Ebola research used in West Africa and on experience from a landmark Guinea trial that supported the use of Ervebo against another Ebola strain. WHO said several vaccination rings are already in place, with more being prepared.

The article also says treatment research is advancing through the WHO-sponsored PARTNERS trial, launched in July, which is testing the monoclonal antibody MBP134, remdesivir and a combination of the two. Maftivimab is expected to be added soon, and a post-exposure prophylaxis study with obeldevisir is also underway. WHO expects initial treatment findings in the coming months and vaccine results in early 2027.