Establishing Marburg Vaccine Development and Manufacturing Capability in Africa: Collaboration between Public Health Vaccines (PHV) and Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) for the Technology Transfer of PHV’s Clinical-Stage rVSV Marburg Vaccine Candidate

This project will establish Marburg vaccine development and manufacturing capability in Africa. It is a collaboration between Public Health Vaccines (PHV) and Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) to tech transfer the promising clinical-stage rVSV Marburg vaccine candidate to IPD in Senegal, Africa and position the candidate for advanced development and clinical testing. Viral vector-based vaccines are designed by using harmless viruses to safely deliver antigens of potentially harmful pathogens. The benefit of this approach from a manufacturing perspective is that the production of vaccines against dangerous pathogens can occur more safely in lower category biosafety laboratories and from a clinical safety perspective pose higher tolerability and lower risk for adverse events while affording robust protection. Producing the vaccines at scale can be challenging, and optimizing how viruses and cells interact is key to the most efficient generation of vaccine supply. This is especially important during public health emergencies or where a surge in demand is observed. This project aims to establish a state of readiness and rapid response should a Marburg virus outbreak occur, and a foundation for similar preparedness using a proven platform technology to combat other high priority viral pathogens should they emerge. In this case, recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) is used to express foreign antigens. This is the same expression platform as that used for the licensed Ebola vaccine (ERVEBO(r)). Vero cells, the substrate for vaccine production, that will be optimized to be "super producers" will generate two critical benefits: 1) higher yield and thus 2) lower cost of goods. Both aspects are essential during a public health emergency such as for Marburg virus disease, when the need to efficiently generate substantial quantities of quality-assured products in the shortest time is paramount. The impact of this work goes far beyond any improvements in yield of a vaccine candidate, or any reduction in cost of goods. This work aligns well with UK Aid's _Manufacturing Africa_ initiative that heads of state in the African Union have been advancing since the COVID-19 pandemic exposed unacceptable inequities in access to vaccines and other pharmaceutical products and which the UK supports financially through the Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO). IPD is one of the frontrunners on the African continent to scale its production facilities and vaccine development capabilities.