EBOVAC2

Data published in the journal PLOS Medicine demonstrates that the IMI-funded Johnson & Johnson Ebola vaccine regimen was well tolerated and induced a robust immune response in both healthy adults and adults living with HIV. ###The data is from a Phase 2 study conducted in Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda that enrolled 668 healthy adults and 142 adults living with HIV.

The study also confirms that HIV infection (well-controlled via treatment with a highly-active antiretroviral therapy) did not have any apparent influence on the immune responses elicited by the vaccine regimen.

‘These data add to the growing body of evidence supporting the prophylactic use of the Johnson & Johnson Ebola vaccine regimen to protect people at risk of Ebola. This is critical to our vision of protecting some of the world’s most vulnerable and underserved people – including people living with HIV – by preventing Ebola outbreaks before they start,’ said Paul Stoffels of Johnson & Johnson. 

Find out more

• Read the article in full

In 2014, an Ebola outbreak kicked off in the west African nation of Guinea and quickly spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia, putting other countries in the region on high alert. Epidemiologist and public health expert Professor Nicolas Meda of Burkina Faso played a key role in his country’s response to the epidemic, and participated in the IMI Ebola vaccine project EBOVAC2.### In an interview with the IMI Programme Office, he looks back on the experience and sets out the lessons learnt and actions taken since then to prevent future outbreaks. In the interview, he also highlights the benefits of participating in IMI. ‘In EBOVAC2, it’s pretty much a global collaboration. So this is a challenge and an opportunity to improve our knowledge and our skills on the conduct of vaccine trials,’ he explains. ‘Because as I said, we did a lot of clinical trials, but they were for medicines. This time it was a trial for a vaccine and this experience was important and exciting for the team.’ He also urges countries to boost the capacity of their health systems. ‘At the political level there are measures that every country should put in place to be able to do surveillance well and detect cases early,’ he insists. ‘If you detect early, you have a good chance of limiting the epidemic. But if you don’t have this capacity in the health system to do surveillance and detect early, you will always have big epidemics that spread. So strengthening health systems so that they are capable of detecting and responding rapidly is essential.’

• Read the interview here
• Find out more about EBOVAC2 and the IMI Ebola+ programme

IMI Ebola project EBOVAC2 has launched a campaign in France to recruit around 300 volunteers for a trial Ebola vaccine regimen. The goal of this study is to assess the safety and efficacy of a novel prime boost preventive regimen against Ebola virus disease.### The vaccine regimen under investigation has two parts – a ‘prime’ vaccine to stimulate the immune system and a ‘boost’ vaccine to strengthen and extend the immune response. Additional volunteers are being recruited in the UK and in Africa. ‘Participants in this trial cannot become infected with the Ebola virus,' said EBOVAC2 project coordinator Rodolphe Thiébaut of INSERM. ‘Only synthetic proteins or parts of proteins are used in the various vaccines being tested. They cannot in any way cause infection. This is based on the same principle as many existing vaccines for infectious diseases.’

• Read the INSERM press release on EBOVAC2.