Human trials for an Ebola vaccine to begin soon

Oxford University has launched the first human clinical trial of a vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, aiming to accelerate efforts to combat the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

The university said in a statement, as reported by Reuters, that the trial, which is still in its early stages, will assess the safety of the vaccine (ChAdOx1-EBOV) and the immune response in 50 healthy adults aged 18 to 55 in Oxford.

The vaccine was developed by scientists from the Vaccine Group and the Institute of Epidemiology at Oxford University, using the same viral vector platform employed in the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

The Serum Institute of India, a partner in this program, said it produced and stored approximately 620,000 doses of the candidate vaccine within two weeks, and supplied the study with 4,000 experimental doses for use in the early phase of the trial.

In May last year, the World Health Organization recommended prioritizing the ChAdOx1-EBOV vaccine, along with a single-dose candidate known as rVSV-Bundibugyo, which is being developed by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, for clinical evaluation.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations said it would initially invest around $8.6 million to develop the vaccine.