The funding will support the vaccine through preclinical development and into a Phase 1 clinical trial, where its safety and ability to generate an immune response will be assessed in humans. The early-stage trial is expected to be conducted in Africa.
The partnership represents a significant step for African vaccine development, with Minapharm, headquartered in Egypt and operating alongside its Berlin-based subsidiary ProBioGen, leading the programme.
The Bundibugyo vaccine candidate was designed by ProBioGen using its proprietary modified vaccinia Ankara platform, known as MVA-CR19. The technology is based on a vaccine platform related to technologies already used in licensed vaccines against smallpox and mpox and has previously demonstrated the ability to generate long-lasting immunity against a related Ebola virus.
CEPI said Minapharm’s candidate is the fifth Bundibugyo-specific vaccine programme it has supported as part of its response to the outbreak. The organisation is backing multiple candidates based on different technologies in an effort to increase the chances of producing a safe and effective vaccine capable of helping contain the epidemic.
Unlike the other candidates in CEPI’s portfolio, Minapharm’s vaccine is designed to stimulate both B-cell and T-cell immune responses, an approach intended to provide comprehensive and potentially longer-lasting protection.
CEPI Chief Executive Officer, Dr Richard Hatchett, said the investment reflected the growing capacity of African companies to develop solutions to health emergencies affecting the continent.
“CEPI’s funding to Minapharm harnesses the growing strength of African-led innovation to help confront this increasingly severe outbreak and prepare for future threats,” Hatchett said.
He said the rapid spread of the virus in the DRC underscored the urgency of developing effective vaccines.
“In just three months, cases of Bundibugyo have spread rapidly across the DRC, making this the largest and deadliest outbreak the country has ever faced,” he said.
Hatchett added that supporting Minapharm would expand CEPI’s options while strengthening a vaccine technology that could eventually support African manufacturing.
“We are proud to support Minapharm’s Bundibugyo vaccine candidate: it will round out CEPI’s portfolio, give the world another shot on goal, and advance Minapharm’s proprietary MVA platform, which if successful can serve as the basis for future African-manufactured filovirus vaccines,” he said.
“The faster we can advance a pipeline of promising candidates, the better our chances of saving lives and bringing this epidemic under control.”
CEPI said its broader objective is to advance at least two Bundibugyo vaccines to Emergency Use Authorisation and World Health Organisation (WHO) Prequalification. Such approvals would help provide a response to the current outbreak while also improving preparedness for future epidemics caused by the virus.
For Minapharm, the project is also being presented as a step towards greater African self-reliance in the development and production of advanced medicines and vaccines.
Dr Wafik Bardissi, Group Chairman and CEO of Minapharm and Chairman of ProBioGen, said the company had spent more than two decades building its biologics capabilities in Egypt while developing a cross-continental research and manufacturing model with its German subsidiary.
“For more than 25 years, Minapharm has built proven biologics capabilities in Egypt and, together with ProBioGen, established a cross-continental group model combining scientific innovation, proprietary technologies and advanced biomanufacturing,” Bardissi said.
He said the Ebola vaccine project demonstrated the group's ability to move from scientific research and product design to manufacturing.
“This programme demonstrates the strength of our capabilities across the full biologics continuum, from design and development through to manufacturing, in response to an urgent public-health threat,” he said.
“With CEPI’s support, we are turning scientific ingenuity into health sovereignty, drawing on the breadth of our technologies and know-how to advance a vaccine response for Africa.”
ProBioGen Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Volker Sandig, said the MVA-CR19 platform was developed to enable the rapid creation of recombinant MVA vaccine candidates and support manufacturing at scale.
“ProBioGen’s MVA-CR19 platform was developed to enable rapid generation of recombinant MVA vaccine candidates and scalable manufacturing,” Sandig said.
He added that the company would contribute its platform and expertise in chemistry, manufacturing and controls to the Minapharm-led programme.
“We are proud to bring this platform and our CMC expertise to a Minapharm-led programme supported by CEPI, helping advance a Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine candidate towards clinical evaluation in response to an urgent public-health need,” he said.
The initiative has also received backing from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), which described the African-led development of the vaccine as an important step towards strengthening the continent's health security.
Africa CDC Director General, Dr Jean Kaseya, said the severity of the outbreak made the development of a locally driven vaccine response particularly important.
“Bundibugyo virus is now driving the largest Ebola outbreak DRC has ever faced,” Kaseya said.
“A vaccine candidate advanced by an African company is exactly the kind of capability our continent needs – not just for this outbreak, but so that Africa can develop and manufacture the tools it needs to protect its own people.”
He welcomed CEPI's investment as “a concrete step toward that health sovereignty.”
From laboratory to local manufacturing
Under the programme, ProBioGen, which is wholly owned by Minapharm and based in Germany, will manufacture the recombinant MVA drug substance under Good Manufacturing Practice standards.
The drug substance is the active component of the vaccine and contains the viral material designed to train the immune system to recognise and respond to Bundibugyo ebolavirus.
The material will initially be transported to Minapharm's manufacturing facility in Cairo, where it will be formulated into the finished drug product for testing.
Minapharm also plans to transfer drug-substance manufacturing to its biotechnology facilities in Cairo. If completed, the move would allow the company to undertake both drug-substance and finished drug-product manufacturing locally in Egypt.
The proposed manufacturing transition is significant because vaccine production capacity remains unevenly distributed globally, with African countries continuing to seek greater domestic and regional capacity to develop and manufacture vaccines and other critical medical products.
Minapharm's involvement in the project builds on more than 25 years of experience in the development, manufacture and commercialisation of complex biologic medicines in Africa.
The immediate priority, however, remains clinical development.
If the Phase 1 trial demonstrates that the vaccine is safe and produces the desired immune response, CEPI said it expects to work with Minapharm and ProBioGen on later-stage clinical trials designed to generate the efficacy data required for emergency use authorisation and eventual licensure.
The partners have also committed to pursuing rapid and affordable supply to countries and populations affected by the outbreak if the vaccine is ultimately proven safe and effective.
Beyond the current emergency, a successful programme could provide a platform for Minapharm to expand its vaccine manufacturing capabilities, potentially with further support from CEPI and other partners.
The funding for CEPI's Bundibugyo vaccine development programme comes from multiple sources, including the European Commission through CEPI's 2026 Horizon Europe grant, the United States Department of State and CEPI's existing core funding.
For Africa's public-health sector, the programme therefore carries significance beyond the development of a single Ebola vaccine. Its success could demonstrate how African pharmaceutical companies, working with international partners, can increasingly design, develop and manufacture vaccines against diseases that pose immediate threats to the continent.