Congo-Kinshasa: Epidemic Coalition Focuses on Bundibugyo Ebola Vaccine

The Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been labelled the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever, not only among the previous Bundibugyo outbreaks. This has raised concern that response efforts are falling behind the virus. As of 10 July 2026, the DR Congo had recorded 1,759 confirmed cases and 600 deaths. Neighbouring Uganda had reported 20 cases, including two fatalities and 17 recoveries.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has said that efforts to contain the outbreak have made progress, but warned that rising infections continue to outpace the response.

Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks caused by the Zaire strain, the current epidemic is driven by the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or targeted treatments. Even so, researchers have launched the first clinical trials of potential therapies, while efforts to develop vaccines are being accelerated.

In this interview with allAfrica's Melody Chironda, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) Chief Executive Officer Dr Richard Hatchett discusses the challenges of responding to the outbreak, the race to develop vaccines and why sustained global support will be critical to preventing the crisis from worsening.

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The Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak has spread to the DR Congo and Uganda. Why is this Ebola outbreak of concern?

The Bundibugyo ebolavirus epidemic may prove to be one of the most challenging non-pandemic outbreaks in decades. Only a month since the epidemic was first declared, this is already the third worst Ebola outbreak in history, and the recent doubling of confirmed cases in just ten days is deeply alarming. At present, the outbreak is outpacing global response efforts, with significant blind spots in contact tracing meaning that nobody truly knows the extent of the spread of the virus across Eastern DR Congo.

Compounding the challenge is the fact that the affected region presents one of the most complex conflict ecosystems in the world, with over 100 armed militia groups creating immense difficulties in accessing patients needing immediate care, and it could also disrupt the running of upcoming clinical trials.

In addition, the outbreak is also occurring across a widespread area of over 100,000 square km2 (roughly the size of Eritrea) with a population approaching 20 million people. There is also limited access to healthcare facilities, and populations are constantly on the move. Nearly a million people have been displaced by conflict in the affected province of Ituri, and thousands of miners move regularly between remote sites, which could accelerate the number and spread of infections. Misinformation and disinformation around the outbreak are also rife, including suspicions around 'outsider' response teams and false claims about the virus being a hoax. All these factors together complicate not just trials but every aspect of response: surveillance, contact tracing, vaccination, logistics, and, perhaps most importantly, trust.

To add to these difficulties, there are also currently no vaccines available to use in response to the outbreak against this particular Ebolavirus. This is because the world had been prioritising the development of more frequently occurring Ebolaviruses, like Ebola Zaire. Prior to this outbreak, only 2 of around 50 known Ebolavirus outbreaks had been caused by Bundibugyo virus.

How is CEPI responding to the outbreak?

Since the outbreak was declared just over a month ago, CEPI has been working around the clock with our scientific partners - including WHO, Africa CDC, Gavi and national authorities - to accelerate the development of vaccines that could help bring an end to this fast-spreading crisis.

CEPI has to date provided funding to advance four investigational Bundibugyo vaccines into the first stage of clinical trials. Agreements for the first three vaccine candidates were signed just two weeks after the outbreak was declared. We are also continuing to evaluate other vaccine candidates to broaden the portfolio and have launched a scientific search to invest in additional promising vaccines.

At the same time, our networks of researchers, manufacturers and regulators are also gearing up or actively supporting the response. For example, our laboratory partners are preparing to support vaccine testing; we are in dialogue with potential manufacturers to produce doses for trials; we have launched a search for potential Phase I clinical trial sites across the African continent; and we are engaging with regulators to align on regulatory pathways.

If Phase I trials are successful, CEPI anticipates working with partners to support late-stage testing. Overall, our goal is to advance vaccine candidates as quickly as possible through to emergency authorisation to help curtail the outbreak, protect those most in need and save lives.

CEPI announced U.S.$60 million to advance four Bundibugyo vaccine candidates. How were these candidates selected?

The four vaccine candidates were selected based on CEPI's rapid, global review of Bundibugyo virus vaccines in development and consultations with WHO, Africa CDC, Gavi and affected countries.

The investigational vaccines were selected as they use different, validated vaccine platform technologies: mRNA for Moderna and the viral vectors ChAdOx for Oxford/Serum and VSV for IAVI and Public Health Vaccines. Having multiple shots on goal increases our chances of developing a successful vaccine.

These three vaccine platform technologies have extensive safety data and have been used to develop vaccine candidates that have shown preclinical or clinical efficacy against related filoviruses such as Zaire Ebola virus, Sudan virus and Marburg virus. The safety data accumulated with the platforms and this prior experience with related viruses strongly suggest that safe and effective vaccines can be developed against the Bundibugyo virus.

All four developers are also long-standing partners of CEPI and are committed to enabling rapid, affordable supply of Bundibugyo virus vaccines to affected countries and to the populations that need them.

What are the expected timelines for these vaccine candidates to begin clinical trials?

Vaccine development is incredibly complex – it's a winding road which can come with speed bumps.

We are hopeful, however, that the Oxford and Moderna candidates could enter early human testing as soon as next month. With IAVI and Public Health Vaccines using a more complicated platform to manufacture, these candidates may start clinical trials later this year if all goes well.

Given the urgency of the outbreak, how is CEPI coordinating with partners like Gavi to support the response?

Both my organisation (CEPI) and our partners at Gavi launched emergency funds to accelerate the response to the outbreak. These together act as a "push–pull" financing strategy designed to speed up the entire vaccine development process from early research through safety testing and clinical trials to large‑scale manufacturing, procurement, and rapid deployment.

While CEPI's efforts are focused on accelerating the vaccines into clinical development and later stages of testing, Gavi's $40 million funding, from its First Response Fund, could help manufacturers invest in production capacity before there is any guarantee that a vaccine will ultimately reach the market. This should mean that, as soon as clinical trials generate promising results, doses could be deployed rapidly to support outbreak response.

Gavi's support also aims to help promising candidates progress towards WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) and/or Prequalification, key milestones that would enable broader deployment of any Bundibugyo vaccine. Plus, if a Bundibugyo vaccine proves safe and effective and eventually secures regulatory approval, it could join Gavi's stockpile of vaccines, giving manufacturers confidence that demand will continue and ensuring the world is prepared for future Ebola outbreaks.

In addition to Gavi, we are also in dialogue with other institutions, such as the World Bank and Development Finance Institutions, to discuss the surge financing needed beyond CEPI to enable further downstream manufacturing and procurement with countries, pending the outcome of the vaccine candidates as they progress through trials.

What lessons does this outbreak offer about global preparedness?

As this epidemic and the recent Hantavirus outbreak show, emerging infectious disease emergencies are increasing in frequency, scale and impact.

These deadly pathogens underscore the systemic weaknesses in how the world prepares for rare but dangerous outbreaks, and the urgent need to strengthen public health responses and accelerate medical countermeasures development ahead of an outbreak so that we are ready to respond when it does strike.

To do so, CEPI has launched a bold new plan that could see the world respond to a future new virus with epidemic or pandemic potential in as little as 100 days. To achieve this goal, we are calling on governments, philanthropies and partners to invest US$2.5 billion in our work and strengthen the world's disease defences. The cost of funding preparedness is dwarfed by the cost of inaction.

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What keeps you motivated and hopeful in your response to this outbreak?

What keeps me motivated is the guiding principle that we must not allow the world to repeat the devastating mistakes of the past. The 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic was a terrible epidemic, resulting in over 28,000 people becoming ill and more than 11,000 dying. But today I believe that Ebola is a disease we can stop.

The world has taken rapid action to support this, including through the development of medical countermeasures such as vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. Less than a week after the outbreak was declared, Dr Tedros, the head of WHO, convened the leaders of the international organizations responsible for developing, procuring and delivering medical countermeasures for a face-to-face meeting in Geneva. By comparison, the first coordination meeting of this same group in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was held in April 2020. This was nearly 3 months after COVID was recognized as a pandemic threat.

Emergency funds have been mobilized rapidly. In addition to CEPI and Gavi making emergency funding available to support vaccine development, the Pandemic Fund released over $220 million in early June to support the response, and the WHO and Africa CDC have released a joint Continental Preparedness and Response Plan calling for over $500 million to support the first six months of the response.

We are fortunate in that while we were not prepared for this specific virus, it comes from a family - the Filoviruses - that we know a great deal about. This has enabled us to get to work quickly, investing in promising vaccine designs and developers with extensive experience and validated technologies working with this virus family.

All of this together represents real progress and demonstrates the high levels of motivation across the board - but there is still much more to do. The increasing spread of infections remains deeply concerning, with the outbreak teetering on the edge of becoming a humanitarian crisis.

We have the science, and we know what we need to do. With the political buy-in and additional investment into the long-term response, we can develop the life-saving tools needed to both protect those most vulnerable and bring the epidemic to an end. In doing so, we will also equip ourselves with the tools needed to respond to future Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreaks.