Researchers at the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) are working urgently to develop a vaccine for Bundibugyo Ebolavirus amid an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In response to the current outbreak, OVG is collaborating with Oxford’s Clinical BioManufacturing Facility and the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SIIPL) to rapidly produce and scale doses of their ChAdOx-based monovalent Bundibugyo Ebolavirus candidate vaccine, ChAdOx1 BDBV.
The platform, a viral-vector vaccine previously used in the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 jab, has been deployed for this emergency response. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Congolese government declared the outbreak on May 15, with over 900 suspected cases and 101 confirmed cases identified across a region larger than the state of Florida. The epicenter is in Ituri province, where nearly 5 million people live amid ongoing conflict, and 1 in 4 individuals require humanitarian assistance while 1 in 5 are internally displaced.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that violence is forcing people to flee, including health workers, severely impeding contact tracing efforts. He also stated the outbreak was likely spreading for weeks or months before being detected, complicating response efforts. The first known case involved a nurse who presented symptoms on April 24 in Bunia, Ituri province. According to an internal report by the Congolese health ministry, the nurse was buried in Mongbwalu—a gold-mining town that experienced unexplained deaths, including four health workers who died within a single week.
Professor Teresa Lambe OBE, Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology at the Oxford Vaccine Group and Pandemic Sciences Institute, said: “My hope is that this outbreak can be brought under control quickly and that vaccines are ultimately not needed. Nevertheless, our team and partners will continue working to ensure that potential vaccine options are available if they are needed.”
The ChAdOx1 BDBV candidate vaccine builds on decades of research by OVG, which previously contributed to the approval of an Ebola vaccine by the European Medicines Agency in 2020.