Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Oxford University researchers, who are working with global partners, including the Punebased Serum Institute of India, are rapidly advancing vaccines and treatments for the current strain of Ebola that triggered an outbreak in Congo, Uganda and South Sudan.
“Animal studies for the Oxford vaccine candidate are already under way and will be progressing with partners around the world. As for timelines, Serum Institute of India is an organisation that goes far and fast. So we are hoping to have clinical grade vaccine doses ready within two to three months,” Prof Teresa Lambe, Head of Vaccine Immunology, Oxford Vaccine Group, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, told a virtual meeting today. Co-designer of the Oxford AZ vaccine against Covid, Prof Lambe said that researchers are aiming for a single-dose vaccine, similar to the licensed Ebola Zaire vaccine.
The vaccine eႇort builds on more than a decade of work with the ChAdOx platform, the same technology behind the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine. Scientists say this existing knowledge has allowed them to move unusually quickly. Oxford’s manufacturing partners, including the Oxford Biomanufacturing Facility, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Serum Institute of India, are helping accelerate production and clinical preparation.
Outbreak fast moving Oxford is also working with global partners to accelerate the generation of supportive pre-clinical data for the development and testing of the ChADOxbased monovalent Bundibugyo Ebolavirus candidate vaccine ChAdOx1 BDBV in outbreak scenarios.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has been a fast-moving one according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He recently said it was outpacing response eႇorts with the number of suspected deaths rising to 220.
The current bout of Ebola, which causes haemorrhagic fever and high mortality, has been caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus. Currently, no vaccine or speci¿c treatment has been approved to prevent or treat Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus strain.