CEPI and Gavi's new push–pull strategy aims to bring a Bundibugyo vaccine within reach. Here’s how.
The deadly Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda has exposed an urgent global need: there are no licensed vaccines targeting Bundibugyo virus and, until this outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, there were none at an advanced stage of development.
This lack of medical tools to counter a viral disease that kills so many of the people it infects is not down to poor scientific knowledge or limited technological innovation. It’s a clear-cut case of market failure.
While Bundibugyo is an extremely deadly disease, outbreaks are rare and sporadic. This means that while they can devastate communities and destroy peoples’ lives, they don’t create predictable markets for vaccine developers.
Instead, manufacturers face a very high risk that any research and development investment they make could cost them dearly with uncertain demand, no guaranteed buyers and no commercial return.
So companies don’t invest. And the world is left facing each new outbreak as unprepared as it was for the last.
A push–pull fix
This week, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have launched a combined “push–pull” financing strategy designed to fix this market failure with a new business model for epidemic vaccine development.
The “push” is CEPI’s role. The coalition has announced more than $60 million in urgent investments to advance a portfolio of Bundibugyo vaccine candidates using three separate vaccine platform approaches.
The CEPI funding will support a range of activities from the generation of Master Virus Seed stock – the starting material needed to manufacture vaccines – to preclinical testing, Phase 1 trials and the simultaneous manufacturing of clinical‑grade doses so that later‑stage trials can begin immediately if early data show potential.
“This early‑stage so-called ‘push’ funding is critical for reducing scientific and technical risk for developers,” said Aurélia Nguyen, CEPI’s Deputy CEO.
CEPI’s support will also activate global laboratory networks to test and compare results, engage regulators to plan ahead for how promising candidate vaccines could be licensed for emergency use, and mobilise manufacturing partners so that effective vaccines can move from design to delivery as quickly as possible.
The pull factor
If CEPI’s ‘push’ funding aims to help developers overcome the scientific and technical hurdles of bringing a candidate vaccine out of the laboratory and into human trials , Gavi’s ‘pull’ funding aims to tackle the commercial risks that often prevent promising products from progressing further.
Gavi has approved up to $40 million from its First Response Fund (FRF), which could help manufacturers invest in production capacity before there is any guarantee that a vaccine will ultimately reach the market.
This should mean that, as soon as clinical trials generate promising results, doses could be deployed rapidly to support outbreak response.
Gavi’s support also aims to help promising candidates progress towards WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) and/or Prequalification, key milestones that would enable broader deployment of any Bundibugyo vaccine.
“This surge financing is about buying speed, capacity and access,” said Emanuele Capobianco, Gavi’s Director of Global Health Security. “It ensures that when the science succeeds, new vaccine doses will be ready to go and countries can access them fast.”
The longer-term goal is even more ambitious: to create a sustainable market for Bundibugyo vaccines into the future.
Gavi already finances and manages a global stockpile of Ebola vaccines, which currently contains only vaccines against Zaire ebolavirus.
If a Bundibugyo vaccine proves safe and effective and eventually secures regulatory approval, it could potentially join that stockpile, giving manufacturers confidence that demand will continue while ensuring the world is better prepared for future Ebola outbreaks.
“Our financial intervention aims to provide a mechanism that gives the most promising candidates some risk share or path of confidence towards an eventual steady state business for a successful licensed vaccine,” said Dominic Hein, Gavi’s Director of Market Shaping.
Together, these commitments create a push–pull funding strategy designed to speed up the entire vaccine development process from early research through safety testing and clinical trials to large‑scale manufacturing and rapid deployment.
Trial-ready vaccines in months
Timelines are always tricky in vaccine development, but with the Bundibugyo outbreak continuing to spread, CEPI, Gavi and all their partners are committed to moving as quickly as possible, while ensuring any vaccine is safe and effective.
The World Health Organization has said it could take six to nine months for potential vaccines to reach trial‑ready status. The hope is that rapid response funding could make early clinical testing possible in a matter of months.
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