Breakthroughs Blog

On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the first patient enrollment in a critical clinical trial evaluating investigational antiviral therapies to treat Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus, as the worrying outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to grow. There are currently no approved treatments specifically for the Bundibugyo strain. The trial is supported by a range of multilateral, regional, national, and scientific partners and is being coordinated by the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, the Institute of Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford. Two therapies, the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and remdesivir, which were selected by WHO technical advisors, are being evaluated for their ability to improve survival among patients, with the goal of saving lives and helping curb the spread of the current outbreak, as well as generating evidence to improve care for future outbreaks. A comprehensive review of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines published last week in The Lancet found that they are safe and effective, as skepticism around the safety and trustworthiness of the technology has persisted in recent years, while new research efforts have demonstrated the technology’s promise to address a range of priority disease and health challenges, including influenza and cancer. The researchers found that serious events are rare and the odds of them occurring were outweighed by significant protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death. The researchers do acknowledge challenges with mRNA technology, including that they mRNA vaccines are not as effective at providing long-last immunity as they are at generating short-term responses and they have significant, expensive storage resource requirements, challenging access in low-resource areas. Sustained innovation and a commitment to improving access could help address these shortcomings and ensure the promise of mRNA technology is fully realized around the world.Early results from a new study published in Nature last week found that an investigational HIV vaccine demonstrated unprecedented success in primates in a preclinical trial. The vaccine, which was developed through a prolonged collaboration between scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Scripps Research, works by prompting the immune system to produce high numbers of broadly neutralizing antibodies, which are capable of neutralizing a wide range of strains of the virus and are recognized as a promising approach in the HIV vaccine development field. One of the challenges of developing a vaccine for HIV has been the genetic diversity of the virus, with various distinct strains circulating. People living with HIV naturally develop broadly neutralizing antibodies that can neutralize various strains but designing a vaccine that can induce them has proven to be a challenge for researchers. 

For decades, the United States has led the world in public investment in global health research and development (R&D). Federal support enabled the development of breakthrough technologies that are saving and improving lives in the United States and around the world. US government investment in global health R&D has also generated billions in domestic economic activity, created American jobs, and laid the foundation for future discoveries that will catalyze billions more in economic benefits in the years ahead. America’s leadership in global health R&D reflects the country’s values, entrepreneurial spirit, and commitment to improving lives globally. This year, to mark America’s birthday and celebrate the nation’s extraordinary contributions to advancing lifesaving innovation, GHTC is spotlighting four game-changing global health technologies developed by US innovators with federal support.A DR-TB drug transforming the global fight against TB Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease, killing 1.23 million people in 2024 alone, with growing resistance making it even more deadly and difficult to treat.  Historically, treatment for drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) required up to 20 or more pills a day over the course of 18 months or more, and patients often experienced severe side effects, such as hearing loss. Even then, nearly half of patients who were able to access treatment went uncured.Pretomanid, developed by TB Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit product development partnership, represents a major advance in DR-TB therapy. As part of a six-month, all-oral combination regimen, it has drastically reduced treatment duration, complexity, and toxicity for patients.  This innovation was made possible through funding from the US Agency for International Development and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and was advanced in partnership with a broad coalition of American companies, nonprofits, and universities. Since its approval, TB Alliance has strived to make pretomanid-containing regimens more affordable and accessible, improving access to high-quality DR-TB treatment in the places that need it most.A groundbreaking HIV prevention drug poised to revolutionize the fight An estimated 40.8 million people globally are living with HIV/AIDS, and 1.3 million people became newly infected in 2024. Despite decades of progress, momentum toward ending HIV as a public health threat has slowed in recent years, and major gaps remain in our arsenal of prevention tools.  Gilead Sciences, a California-based biopharmaceutical company, developed lenacapavir, a groundbreaking new HIV prevention drug that requires just two injections per year. It offers discreet, long-acting protection, making HIV prevention more accessible and easier to sustain.  Developed using evidence from National Institutes of Health-funded research, lenacapavir is now being scaled up globally through a US Department of State-led partnership, helping ensure this innovation reaches communities in need. A next-generation polio vaccine bringing us closer to eradication The first polio vaccine, introduced in the 1950s, transformed polio from a disease that caused frequent, devastating epidemics into one on the brink of global eradication. However, outbreaks of vaccine-derived poliovirus in under-immunized communities globally have posed a major challenge to vanquishing the disease for good.To address this, PATH, a Washington-based nonprofit developer, partnered with the University of California, San Francisco; the Gates Foundation; and global collaborators to develop nOPV2, a next-generation oral polio vaccine. nOPV2 retains the advantages of the original oral vaccine but has been specifically engineered to reduce the risk of vaccine-derived outbreaks. This breakthrough benefitted from critical development support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  More than 1 billion doses of nOPV2 have been administered in countries around the world, with an expanded network of manufacturers helping ensure global access and prevent outbreaks.  First FDA-approved Ebola treatment continuing to offer hope As the current outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reminds us, Ebola outbreaks can rapidly escalate into international health emergencies. When the 2018-2020 outbreak of Zaire ebolavirus began in the DRC—the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak—there were no approved Ebola treatments. Inmazeb®, a novel antiviral medicine developed by Massachusetts-based Regeneron in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was evaluated in a National Institutes of Health-supported trial during the outbreak. The strong results from that trial supported approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020, making Inmazeb the first FDA-approved treatment for Ebola, which has since been deployed in Ebola outbreaks in the DRC and Guinea. The most potent antibody in Inmazeb has now been recommended for priority evaluation during the current outbreak after demonstrating broad activity against multiple Ebola strains, including Bundibugyo, for which no approved therapeutics exist—highlighting how US-backed innovation continues to pay off and why sustained investment is needed to stay ahead of future threats.  Ensuring continued US leadership through sustained investment From transforming DR-TB treatment and HIV prevention to accelerating polio eradication and delivering the first Ebola therapy, the United States has long been at the forefront of global health innovation. These successes reflect the best of America: leadership, ingenuity, compassion, and a commitment to improving lives. Sustaining this impact will require continued investment and support in the programs, partnerships, and people that make such breakthroughs possible.

An international clinical trial led by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) seeking improved antibiotic treatments for newborn sepsis has expanded to India. Neonatal sepsis is one of the leading causes of newborn deaths worldwide and is becoming harder to treat due to rising antibiotic drug resistance. Newborns have long been underrepresented in antibiotic research, leaving health care providers without an evidence-based standard-of-care treatment. The lack of a standard treatment has in turn complicated neonatal sepsis research because there is no obvious treatment to use as a comparison in trials. The trial aims to test and rank multiple potential antibiotic combinations for neonatal sepsis.Last week, the World Health Organization announced that a clinical trial evaluating two potential antiviral therapeutics for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola will be launched in the Democratic Republic of the Congo next week amid the ongoing outbreak. There are currently no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the Bundibugyo strain, which is only known to have caused three outbreaks in history. The trial will evaluate the ability of Mapp Biopharmaceutical’s MBP134 and Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir to reduce mortality in patients, alone and in combination. The United States and Gilead Sciences are donating all the doses that will be used in the trial.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first generic version of rifapentine as part of combination treatment regimens for active and latent pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Rifapentine was first approved by FDA in 1998 to treat pulmonary TB. For active pulmonary TB cases in patients 12 or older, the generic antibiotic is approved only in combination with one or more anti-TB drugs, while for latent TB cases, the generic is approved in combination with isoniazid to treat patients 2 or older at high risk of progressing to TB disease.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of Moderna’s mRNA influenza vaccine for older adults. In a Phase 3 trial in more than 40,000 adults in 11 countries during the 2024-2025 flu season, the vaccine demonstrated significantly better protection than standard-dose shots. Moderna's vaccine also uses mRNA technology, meaning it can be updated more quickly to match circulating flu strains compared to traditional vaccines that use egg-based methods. After initially agreeing to review the vaccine, the FDA had previously raised concerns about the Phase 3 trial for the vaccine, prompting backlash from vaccine and public health experts, before deciding to go ahead with its review. Following the recommendation, the FDA will make a final decision on approval, which is expected by early August.The Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund has started an emergency framework to surge support and funding for the development of rapid and point-of-care diagnostic technologies in response to the Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. There are currently no approved vaccines, therapeutics, or point-of-care diagnostics for Bundibugyo virus. GHIT Fund is prepared to support fast-track funding for infections caused by filoviruses, which include Ebola, with the aim of advancing a diagnostic test, particularly one that is suited to low- and middle-income countries with limited infrastructure, that can improve control capacity for this and future outbreaks.  Inflammatix is collaborating with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to explore the use of the company’s diagnostic test platform for hantaviruses after the recent hantavirus outbreak exposed gaps in testing capacity due to limited technology and testing standards. Inflamattrix’s TriVerity test is a blood-based test that used machine learning to detect infection. It previously received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration as a sepsis test in 2025. The partners are aiming to develop a tool that can assess the early signatures of infection in people with high-risk exposure to the virus, which could help improve early response capacity in future outbreaks.