Egyptian pharmaceutical company Minapharm and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) have announced a funding agreement of up to $16.5 million to advance a candidate vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus. The initiative, reported by Folha de S.Paulo from a joint announcement on Thursday, aims to address the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Engineered by ProBioGen, Minapharm's Berlin-based subsidiary, the candidate remains in the preclinical phase. CEPI funding will support laboratory development through Phase 1 clinical trials to be conducted in Africa. This initial clinical stage is designed specifically to assess safety and evaluate immune response in a small cohort of healthy human volunteers, prior to larger trials measuring field efficacy.

The project targets a severe therapeutic gap, as approved Ebola vaccines were designed against the Zaire strain and do not provide proven protection against Bundibugyo. According to public health authorities, the outbreak declared on May 15 in the DRC has caused more than 5,600 confirmed cases and over 2,700 deaths.

Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), emphasized the strategic need for regional production capabilities:

The Bundibugyo virus is now behind the largest Ebola outbreak ever faced by the DRC. A candidate vaccine developed by an African company represents exactly the kind of capacity our continent needs, allowing Africa to develop and manufacture the tools required to protect its population.

For health professionals and individuals traveling to areas with active transmission, standard preventive protocols advise avoiding contact with blood, bodily fluids, or items contaminated by symptomatic patients, as well as monitoring for fever, muscle aches, and gastrointestinal symptoms for 21 days after returning from endemic regions.