The first participants in Moderna’s clinical trial have been vaccinated against the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, as the company has begun a Phase 1 trial in Canada.
The vaccine candidate is being developed using Moderna’s mRNA platform—the same underlying technology used in its COVID-19 vaccine—the company said in a press release.
About 80 volunteers will take part in the first phase of the trial, which will assess the vaccine’s safety, tolerability, and immune response to the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is currently no approved vaccine.
“The fact that Moderna’s vaccine candidate is moving into Phase 1 trials so quickly is an important step forward in the fight against this deadly outbreak,” said Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
CEPI is a global public-private partnership that funds and accelerates the development of vaccines and biological countermeasures against emerging infectious diseases and potential pandemics.
In June, the coalition announced that it would invest in a portfolio of vaccine candidates under development, including candidates being developed by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Moderna, and the University of Oxford.
The University of Oxford launched a Phase 1 clinical trial in July as part of efforts to contain the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak in history. The vaccines will be manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
“Every day matters, and every vaccine candidate entering clinical trials gives us another opportunity to provide people who need it with a safe and effective vaccine as quickly as possible,” Hatchett added.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing the second-largest Ebola outbreak in its history, with the number of cases rising faster than during previous surges, Euronews reports.
As of Tuesday, 3,802 cases had been recorded and 1,707 people had died, according to the latest government report.
It remains unclear when the outbreak will peak, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Director General Jean Kaseya said Tuesday during his second visit to the city of Bunia, located near the epicenter of the outbreak in Ituri Province.
Kaseya noted that around 60–70% of new cases are linked to community transmission rather than contact tracing—a method used to identify people who have been in contact with a confirmed patient.
“Contact tracing is not working,” Kaseya said. “We do not like the trajectory of this outbreak, and it has already become the second-largest Ebola outbreak in the world in recorded history.”
The outbreak is primarily concentrated in the remote province of Ituri in eastern Congo, which accounts for nearly 90% of cases. However, infections have also been confirmed in five other provinces, including in one of the country’s largest cities, Kisangani.
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