Vaccine Alliance will fund a global stockpile of Ebola vaccines and extend support for malaria vaccine pilots.

New Delhi – A global emergency stockpile of Ebola vaccines will be available to countries for outbreak response and prevention following the approval of a new Ebola vaccine programme by the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which met this week in New Delhi, India.

Gavi will open a new funding window, with estimated investment of US$ 178 million between now and 2025 for the new Ebola vaccine programme. Gavi-supported low- and middle-income countries will be able to access the stockpile free of charge and will receive support for the operational costs of vaccination campaigns. Wealthier countries will be able to access vaccines but will be expected to self-finance.

As well as creating the emergency stockpile, Gavi will also support targeted preventative vaccination outside of an outbreak in high-risk populations, such as health workers, in countries at risk. The target populations and scope of countries will be based on future recommendations by the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE).

“Today, I think about Ebola victim Dr Ameyo Adadevoh, a true vaccine hero who died stopping the Ebola virus from spreading in Nigeria and we should all be excited by the Alliance decision,” said Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair of the Gavi Board. “This is a historic milestone in humanity’s fight against this horrific disease. Just five years ago we faced an Ebola outbreak in West Africa with no vaccine and no way to treat the disease. Today, thanks to the heroic efforts of countless patients, health workers, scientists, manufacturers, donors, partners as well as the leadership of African countries, we now have one vaccine approved for use and more on their way, as well as rapid diagnostics and several promising treatments. With these tools at our disposal, the battle against Ebola can be won, and I’m proud of the role Gavi has played in this.”

The WHO’s SAGE Working Group on Ebola Vaccines and Vaccination has provided guidance that the global emergency stockpile should be maintained at 500,000 licensed doses of vaccines. The price of Ebola vaccines funded by Gavi will be defined as part of a tender process managed by UNICEF, as Gavi’s partner and procurement agency.

There are currently eight candidate Zaire Ebolavirus vaccines at different phases of development. This includes Merck’s vaccine currently being used under compassionate use as part of the response to the ongoing DRC outbreak, which has recently received conditional marketing approval from the European Commission and prequalification from the WHO. More than 250,000 people have received it since the outbreak started in August last year. Moreover, close to a thousand people have received a second candidate vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson as part of a study in North Kivu, DRC.

“The Ebola vaccine has shown extraordinary efficacy in tackling the outbreak in the DRC,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “This achievement demonstrates the Alliance at its best. Now that funding has been approved, we will get to work with manufacturers and our Alliance partners to build the stockpile. It will be critical for Gavi to secure enough funding for the 2021-2025 period to maintain this Ebola vaccine programme in order to protect people, health systems and economies that may be threatened by this devastating disease in the future.”

A coordinating mechanism to decide how and when the vaccine stockpile will be deployed will be established with partner organisations.