The Sabin Vaccine Institute has sent more than 640 doses of its investigational Marburg vaccine to Ethiopia, as the country continues to battle its first-ever outbreak of Marburg, a highly contagious and fatal disease for which there are currently no available vaccines or treatments. Soon after the outbreak was confirmed to be Marburg, Ethiopian authorities coordinated with Sabin and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is supporting development of the vaccine candidate, to obtain access to doses for an outbreak trial. Sabin and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health have signed a clinical trial agreement under which Sabin is providing doses for a two-cohort Phase 2 open-label trial, involving health care and frontline workers, as well as direct contacts of people with confirmed infections. The vaccine is also being tested in Phase 2 clinical trials in Rwanda, the United States, Uganda, and Kenya, which will hopefully yield evidence to support its continued development and use as a tool in future outbreaks.
The Oxford Vaccine Group has vaccinated the first volunteer in a first-in-human trial of its vaccine for Lassa fever, which is caused by Lassa virus, a deadly virus with significant epidemic potential. The trial, funded by CEPI, is being conducted among 31 people between 18 and 51 in Oxford, England, with a second Phase 1 trial in Ghana set to start in early 2026. The vaccine was developed by researchers at the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford and uses the same viral vector platform as the lifesaving Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The Lassa fever Coalition, led by the West African Health Organization, with support from CEPI and partners, is already working with vaccine developers to accelerate the development and equitable introduction of future vaccines across the West African region, which faces a significant burden of Lassa fever.
A Penn State research team has developed a new rapid test that can differentiate active HIV from false positives, which could potentially accelerate the development of a vaccine for HIV. HIV vaccines in development are designed to trigger the body to produce antibodies that target key proteins on the virus’s surface, However, these proteins are also what diagnostic tests detect to confirm an infection, leading trial participants to falsely test positive for HIV, complicating diagnosis and clinical management. Researchers have to use timely and expensive multistep diagnostic procedures to distinguish between those with actual infections and these false positives. The Penn State researchers partnered with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network to test human blood samples with the new testing device, finding that it was highly effective at distinguishing between active infections and false positives and generated results in just five minutes.