Marburg Vaccine March 2023

Marburg Vaccine March 2023

Marburg virus disease (MVD) is a severe disease that has infected humans since 1967. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently reported no Marburg Virus (MARV) disease vaccines are available. However, as of March 24, 2023, several MARV vaccine candidates are conducting early-stage clinical studies. The World Health Organization (WHO) published on February 13, 2023, the Marburg virus vaccine development landscape. 

The MARV outbreak in Guinea and Ghana in 2021 triggered the assembly of the MARV vaccine "MARVAC" consortium in October 2022. On March 30, 2022, the WHO R&D Blueprint team defined the Strategic Agenda for Filovirus Research and Monitoring (AFIRM) to establish research priorities for filovirus diseases during the next decade. William Dowling, Ph.D., Head of Preclinical Development, CEPI, presented: the WHO's Emergency meeting Vaccine R&D Blueprint during the MARVAC meeting on February 14, 2023. 

Marburg Vaccine Candidates

The Sabin Vaccine Institute, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the U.S. Military HIV Research Program vaccine candidate ChAd3-MARV targets against the Marburg virus. The cAd3-Marburg vaccine candidate uses a modified chimpanzee adenovirus.

Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. and the NIAID launched a phase 1 study on August 9, 2016, evaluating AD26 FILO + MVA-BN-FILO's safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of Heterologous Prime-boost Regimens Using the Multivalent Filovirus Vaccines Ad26.Filo and MVA-BN-Filo Administered in Different Sequences and Schedules in Healthy Adults.

IAVI's single-dose rVSVΔG-MARV-GP vaccine candidate against Marburg virus. Recently published preclinical data demonstrates that a single dose of the vaccine candidate is 100% efficacious at preventing MVD in nonhuman primates.

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - Ebola viruses, MARV GPs, and Tai Forest NP have been included in the modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector vaccine (Ad26.ZEBOV, MVA-BN-Filo) in Phase 2, open-label, clinical trial that launched on March 17, 2022. This study evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of the 2-dose vaccination regimen in adults and children initially enrolled in the control arm of the EBOVAC-Salone study.

Blue Water Vaccines Inc. and AbVacc, Inc. are developing vaccine candidates targeting MVD utilizing BWV's norovirus shell and protrusion virus-like particle platform. In May 2021, IBT was awarded a $16.3M contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to support manufacturing and a Phase 1 clinical trial for IBT-T03H within BWV's VLP platform.

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston was awarded nearly $25 million from the U.S. government in January 2023 to develop vaccines to protect against infection, including Marburg.

On October 27, 2021, Orgininal Research demonstrated that the VSV-MARV is a fast-acting vaccine suitable for use in emergencies like disease outbreaks in Africa. Data published on February 10, 2023, highlights VSV-MARV as a viable and fast-acting MARV vaccine candidate and supports the administration of a single low-dose vaccine in an emergency outbreak situation, and decrease the chances of vaccine-induced adverse events. 

Marburg Outbreak 2023

As of March 24, 2023, various African countries reported Marburg disease cases, deaths, and outbreaks in 2023.

Marburg Vaccine News 2023

March 2, 2023 - IAVI announced the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority funded additional development and testing of IAVI's single-dose vaccine candidates against the filoviruses, including the Marburg virus.

February 15, 2023 - The journal Nature published: Marburg virus outbreak: researchers race to test vaccines.

January 30, 2023 - The U.S. NIH published a paper in The Lancet that shows that the first-in-human, Phase 1 study tested an experimental MARV vaccine candidate, known as cAd3-Marburg, which was developed at NIAID's Vaccine Research Center.