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Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. The Ministry of Public Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo has launched Ebola vaccinations for high-risk populations only one week after announcing the latest outbreak of the disease in the North Kivu province. Of the 44 cases reported so far, 17 have been confirmed. A total of 3,220 doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine candidate, developed by Merck, are currently available in country while additional doses have been requested. An agreement between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Merck will ensure additional doses of the vaccine are available on an emergency basis as it goes through the licensing process. The World Health Organization has provided key logistical support in establishing a cold chain and sending necessary supplies for the vaccinations, aiding in the deployment of vaccine experts, and facilitating the negotiation of protocols with the manufacturer and the national authorities. Biobanks provide vital specimens and infrastructure to support scientific research and innovation. While in the developing world, biobanks are well established, issues such as unreliable internet connectivity, a lack of access to resources such as water and electricity, a lack of highly skilled and trained personnel, and the cost of setup have stifled their establishment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) on the African continent. Despite these barriers, LMICs in Africa should prioritize setting up biobanks, argues a group of researchers from the University of Western Cape and Stellenbosch University. They write, “Having access to rich genetic diversity across Africa would allow researchers to understand disease, develop better diagnostics and treatments, medicines and vaccines, geared toward the continent’s population.” A single-dose Zika vaccine candidate developed by researchers at The Ohio State University has proven effective in triggering an immune response in mice, according to a recent study. The vaccine uses a weakened, harmless form of the Vesicular stomatis virus—also known as foot-and-mouth diseases in cattle—to deliver proteins from the Zika virus. This method has been used with other vaccines, such as the Ebola vaccine being used in the recent outbreaks. While further testing is required to see if it is effective in humans, the vaccine candidate’s suggested ability to elicit an immune response with one dose means it has the potential to be especially valuable in hard-to-reach areas and low-resource settings.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. In this editorial piece, Dr. Jenniffer Mabuka of the African Academy of Sciences makes a case that Africa needs to develop a research base to help detect and monitor a range of pathogens and better address disease outbreaks on the continent. Mabuka explains, “A thorough base of research would result in tools that will speed up detection and containment of future outbreaks, generate the knowledge base to help predict future outbreaks of known origins, and help accelerate the development of diagnostics, efficacious drugs and vaccines.” She notes that investing in research and development must be a priority for African governments as recent outbreaks serve as a reminder that equatorial Africa is a hotbed for emerging and re-emerging diseases. A group of scientists has developed a technique to modify a strain of rice to produce HIV-neutralizing proteins. While further study is needed, the researchers believe this technique could offer promise as a low-cost approach for low- and middle-income countries to manufacture topical microbicides, which are compounds that can be applied to the vagina or rectum to reduce the risk of HIV infection. Given the research team was able to alter the rice to simultaneously produce three key proteins, a combination necessary to produce a microbicide with broad coverage against multiple HIV strains, the plant’s seed extract could be used directly as a microbicide without the need for additional costly processing. Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have achieved an important step forward in developing a broadly effective antibody treatment against the three major Ebola strains. The research team reported the isolation of two potent monoclonal antibodies from human survivors of the Ebola virus. In cell culture studies, these antibodies efficiently neutralized the Zaire, Sudan, and Bundibugyo strains of the virus. Further study is required to determine if these antibodies can be combined into an injectable for use in people at high risk of being infected with the Ebola virus. The hope is that the injected antibody “cocktail” would seek out and destroy the virus before it has the chance to wreak havoc on the human body.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo was officially declared over last Tuesday, following a 42-day observation period since the last new case was reported. Health experts credit the use of an experimental vaccine and a speedy and effective response by both the government and the World Health Organization as key factors in controlling this outbreak. Two clinical studies revealed that GlaxoSmithKline’s two-drug treatment for HIV, a combination of dolutegravir and lamivudine, also known as 3TC, is as effective as the standard triple therapy. Crucially, the studies showed that the efficacy of the treatment was consistent whether individuals had higher or lower levels of HIV in their blood, dispelling notions that the two-drug regimen might not work as well in people with more virus. Questions remain regarding the durability of treatment and potential drug resistance, given that the data only spans a 48-week period. The two-drug combination is slated for regulatory submission later this year. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the first new treatment for Plasmodium vivax malaria in 60 years. The drug, tafenoquine, is a single-dose treatment developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Medicines for Malaria Venture. P. vivax malaria causes around 8.5 million infections every year in Asia, Latin America, and parts of Africa. The disease is tricky to combat because the P. vivax parasite can lie dormant in the liver, where it reactivates, and can cause new episodes of malaria weeks, months, and years after the initial infection. In a study of 522 patients, 60 percent saw no relapse six months after taking the drug. Tafenoquine has been submitted for approval to the Australian regulatory authority and is slated to be submitted for approval in malaria endemic countries.