The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has committed $3.9 million to three research projects.

The projects aim to strengthen the response to the rapidly spreading Bundibugyo Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

CEPI made the information available on Wednesday.

The projects will use disease surveillance, laboratory, genomic and population-movement data to provide real-time information on how the virus is spreading and help guide the response.

The evidence will also support clinical trials of candidate vaccines against Bundibugyo virus disease, for which there is currently no licensed vaccine.

According to CEPI, more than 7,200 confirmed cases and over 3,500 deaths have been reported as of September 13.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported 7,258 confirmed cases and 3,510 deaths in the DRC as of September 13.

CEPI said the investments would help generate reliable evidence quickly enough to guide decisions on where the disease was spreading, how rapidly it was transmitting and where interventions could have the greatest impact.

Arminder Deol, Head of Data Science and Advanced Analysis at CEPI, said good outbreak decisions depended on good evidence generated quickly.

Mr Deol said supporting modelling and analytics teams in affected countries would help answer urgent questions about the spread of the virus and how best to evaluate and deploy vaccines and other interventions.

He said the investment would also strengthen analytical expertise that could remain in the affected countries after the outbreak.

According to him, the largest project, Real-Time Epidemic Intelligence and Trial Readiness for the Bundibugyo Virus Response in the DRC (B-REACT), will receive $2.5 million over 12 months.

“Led by the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), the project will combine surveillance, laboratory, genomic and population-movement data into a real-time epidemic intelligence platform,” he said.

Placide Mbala-Kingebeni, Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Global Health at INRB, said the outbreak had demonstrated the importance of analysing information quickly.

“This outbreak has shown that the speed of our response depends on the speed of our analysis,” he said.

He said B-REACT would strengthen real-time modelling and epidemic intelligence within the national response, with Congolese scientists leading the system.

The second project, Bundibugyo Response and Investment Decision Support: A Generalisable Framework for Outbreak Analytics and Vaccine Portfolio Strategy (BRIDGE), will receive $1.1 million.

Led by Imperial College London, it will use mathematical modelling to examine possible outbreak scenarios, simulate vaccine trials and assess vaccine investment options.

Anne Cori, Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Modelling at Imperial College London, said mathematical modelling could turn incomplete and rapidly changing outbreak data into evidence for decision-makers.

Ms Cori said the research would help assess how the epidemic was evolving, project possible future trajectories and inform the value and costs of vaccine candidates.

The third project, led by Makerere University School of Public Health in Uganda, will receive $300,000.

It will model ring vaccination strategies to estimate vaccine-dose requirements, assess the feasibility of vaccine trials and inform their design.

The project will also use bioinformatics to identify potential vaccine targets and train nine Ugandan public health fellows in mathematical modelling, bioinformatics and data analytics.

Abel Walekhwa, co-lead of the IDEMU Mathematical Modelling Unit at Makerere University School of Public Health, said the project would support vaccine planning and trial design while strengthening preparedness for future filovirus outbreaks.

CEPI said the three projects complemented its investment in five investigational Bundibugyo vaccine candidates, two of which are already in Phase 1 clinical trials.

It is also supporting preparations for a Phase 2/3 efficacy trial of candidate vaccines, subject to recommendations by the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Candidate Vaccine Prioritisation and regulatory approval.

CEPI said combining vaccine development with epidemiological modelling and data analysis would provide updated evidence on where and how candidate vaccines could have the greatest impact.

The organisation said the projects would also strengthen analytical capacity in affected countries through open sharing of data, models and methods.

It said the capacity would help national and regional institutions maintain and adapt the tools developed during the current outbreak for future filovirus emergencies.

CEPI said the investments formed part of its wider effort to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biological countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats.

The organisation said the initiative also contributed to its “100 Days Mission” to develop safe, effective and accessible vaccines against new epidemic threats within 100 days.

(NAN)