Bundibugyo Ebola: Two New Vaccine Candidates Recommended for Clinical Trials in the DRC

The WHO has recommended adding the ChAdOx1 candidate, developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469 to the Tumaini clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Designed to protect against the Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak, the vaccines can enter trials once national approvals are obtained. The trial is led by the DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research with Congolese and international partners, and tests multiple vaccine candidates under a shared protocol. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the scientific collaboration and said vaccines could help control the outbreak but would not end it on their own.