EIDB and partners in Nigeria will participate in Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) funded Phase II and III clinical trials of IAVI's Lassa fever vaccine candidate later this year.
IAVI recently announced the CEPI/EDCTP award to its Lassa Fever Vaccine Efficacy and Prevention for West Africa (LEAP4WA); an international consortium that includes partners across multiple countries in West Africa where Lassa Hemorrhagic Fever is a persistent threat. EIDB’s partner in Nigeria, HJFMRI Ltd/Gte, is a part of the LEAP4WA collaboration, which has an existing partnership with CEPI and is included in their plan to advance a Lassa vaccine to licensure by 2026.
The trial sites in Nigeria will include EIDB-supported Clinical Research Center in Abuja as well as partner sites in Owo and Abakaliki, through a collaboration with the Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID). All of these sites have been participating in EIDB Lassa epidemiology studies in anticipation of these trials.
Lassa virus infects approximately half a million people each year. Lassa hemorrhagic fever has a mortality rate of up to 20%. Currently, there is no licensed vaccine available for Lassa. IAVI’s vaccine candidate, rVSVΔG-LASV-GPC, is a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vector and has shown to be efficacious in animal studies.This vaccine platform is similar to the one that received approval for Ebola in 2019 (ERVEBO)®.
You can read the full press release from IAVI here: https://www.iavi.org/news-resources/press-releases/2021/edctp-and-cepi-funding-moves-iavi-s-lassa-fever-vaccine-candidate-into-advanced-clinical-development