Moderna gets $50 million to develop mRNA Ebola vaccine against Bundibugyo
The global health organization Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced Monday that it will "urgently accelerate development" of three vaccine candidates against Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV), pledging a little over $60 million in the effort to extinguish an outbreak currently raging out of control in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Under the plans, CEPI has committed up to $50 million to US-based Moderna for preclinical development and Phase 1 clinical testing of its mRNA-based BDBV vaccine candidate. The funding will simultaneously allow the company to ramp up manufacturing capabilities and ready large-scale Phase 2/3 trials in the event the vaccine makes it through early testing. The vaccine will use Moderna'smRNA vaccine platform that allowed for rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic.
"[W]e believe our mRNA platform can play an important role in responding rapidly to emerging infectious disease threats," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement Monday. " We will move with urgency and scientific rigor to support the response and help bring a potential vaccine closer to the communities that need it most."