With $30 million in funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Merck & Co. is bringing together several global vaccine makers to develop an updated Ebola vaccine to remove existing barriers related to affordability and accessibility.
The project builds on Merck’s existing ebola virus disease vaccine Ervebo, which was developed during the 2014-16 West African Ebola crisis and was the first Ebola vaccine to be prequalified by the World Health Organization.
According to CEPI, the vaccine’s complex manufacturing process could make it susceptible to supply disruptions and logistical challenges, given that it must be stored in freezers at ultra-low temperatures that may be unsustainable in remote, low-resource settings where Ebola outbreaks typically occur, the organization explained in a press release.
To overcome these concerns, those involved in the collaboration will work to update the current manufacturing process to improve thermostability, allowing the vaccine to be stored in a standard refrigerator for longer.
Merck is tapping Hilleman Laboratories, a Singapore-based research organization formed by Merck and British charity Wellcome Trust, to lead the clinical development of the updated vaccine, offering its “critical technical expertise and ongoing support” along the way.
SK Bioscience, meanwhile, is linking up with CDMO IDT Biologika to develop the updated drug substance manufacturing process, SK said in its own Thursday release.
Merck itself will “explore options” to make the vaccine available to public buyers in low- and middle-income countries at a more affordable price point than the current going price based on an anticipated reduction in production costs, according to CEPI.
“This deal brings together longstanding partners of CEPI with longstanding partners of MSD to boost global defences against one of the deadliest pathogens known to humankind, helping to save lives,” CEPI’s CEO Richard Hatchett, M.D., said in the release. Merck is referred to as MSD outside of the U.S. and Canada.
“We believe strategic partnerships are essential to addressing some of the world’s most serious health threats, and we appreciate CEPI's support of Hilleman Laboratories’ pioneering work in vaccine development for diseases affecting people in low- and middle-income countries,” Merck’s human health chief marketing officer and shareholder executive leader of Hilleman, Chirfi Guindo, commented.
The updated process should also make it easier to manufacture the vaccine at scale, which could help rapidly produce large quantities of the immunization if another large outbreak were to strike. SK’s CEO Jaeyong Ahn noted that addressing “deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola requires strong global collaboration,” and that SK’s role will contribute “meaningfully to global health preparedness.”
Along with funding the project, CEPI also pledged to bankroll a phase 3 immunobridging trial in African countries where the vaccine is currently approved to evaluate and compare the immune response given by both the current and the updated vaccine.
Merck’s vaccine is used to protect against the Zaire ebolavirus pathogen, which has a survival rate of about 50% and is responsible for large-scale outbreaks, including the recent 2025 spread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the 2018-2020 outbreak in the DRC, the vaccine proved 84% effective against the virus in people who were infected 10 or more days after vaccination, researchers found.