Race Against Ebola: Gavi, CEPI Launch Fast-Track Vaccine Plan for Bundibugyo Strain

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said efforts to slow Ebola in Uganda have been largely successful. [iStockphoto]

A new global health initiative led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is aiming to fast-track the development of a trial-ready vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus within months, marking a major shift away from the traditional approach of waiting for outbreaks before starting vaccine development.

Gavi said the strategy is designed to close a long-standing gap in global epidemic preparedness, where rare and unpredictable pathogens receive limited commercial investment due to uncertain market returns. According to Gavi, this lack of demand certainty has historically slowed or discouraged manufacturers from investing in vaccines for less common Ebola strains such as Bundibugyo.

The organisation noted that the new approach is intended to change that model by reducing financial risk for developers and ensuring that promising candidates can move through clinical development more quickly.

CEPI, which focuses on accelerating vaccine development for emerging infectious diseases, said the partnership will support rapid research and help advance Ebola vaccine candidates to a stage where they are ready for clinical trials before the next outbreak occurs.

The initiative introduces a $40 million “pull” financing guarantee through Gavi’s First Response Fund. Gavi explained that the mechanism is designed to ensure that if a vaccine successfully completes trials, there will be immediate financing available to support manufacturing and deployment during an outbreak response.

Health experts have long warned that waiting for outbreaks to begin before developing vaccines leaves populations vulnerable during the early stages of transmission, when Ebola spreads rapidly in communities and containment becomes more difficult.

Gavi said the financing model is intended to correct what it described as a structural market failure in vaccine development for epidemic-prone diseases, where low or uncertain returns reduce incentives for private-sector investment.

The Bundibugyo Ebola virus, first identified in Uganda in 2007, is one of several Ebola species that include Zaire, Sudan, Taï Forest and Reston. While Zaire Ebola virus has been the focus of most deployed vaccines, Bundibugyo and Sudan strains have continued to pose outbreak risks in parts of East and Central Africa.

Existing vaccine efforts have primarily centred on the Zaire strain, including the widely used rVSV-ZEBOV (Ervebo) vaccine and the Johnson & Johnson two-dose regimen (Ad26.ZEBOV and MVA-BN-Filo), which have been deployed in outbreak response and preventive vaccination campaigns.

However, CEPI noted that there is still a need for broader vaccine coverage across multiple Ebola strains, particularly as outbreaks remain difficult to predict and can emerge in different regions with little warning.

The new strategy is part of a wider push to develop what global health actors describe as “preparedness-ready” vaccines — products that are already tested and available for rapid scale-up rather than developed during an emergency.

Gavi said the goal is to significantly shorten response times in future outbreaks by ensuring that manufacturing capacity and financing are already aligned before a public health crisis begins.

If successful, the approach could be expanded beyond Ebola to other high-risk pathogens that lack strong commercial markets but continue to pose serious outbreak threats in Africa and globally.