22OCT

CEPI awards Minapharm US$16.5m for Ebola

2 min read

16:36UTC

CEPI awarded up to US$16.5m on 27 August to Egypt's Minapharm and its Berlin subsidiary ProBioGen to take a Bundibugyo vaccine into a first trial in people.

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ScienceDeveloping

Key takeaway

CEPI's fifth Bundibugyo vaccine candidate is planned for full manufacture in Cairo.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which funds vaccines against outbreak threats, awarded up to US$16.5m on 27 August to Egypt's Minapharm and its Berlin subsidiary ProBioGen⁠¹. The money takes an MVA-vectored candidate against Bundibugyo ebolavirus, the Ebola species behind DR Congo's outbreak, into a Phase 1 trial in Africa. MVA is a weakened pox virus engineered to carry another pathogen's proteins, and a Phase 1 trial is a first small test of safety in people.

CEPI called it its fifth Bundibugyo-specific candidate. The fourth, on the rVSV platform, received US$1.9m for seed stock in June, and the first entered trial production at the end of July.

Drug substance will be made in Berlin and the finished doses in Cairo, with a technology transfer planned so that Cairo can make the whole vaccine. Jean Kaseya of Africa CDC said: "A vaccine candidate advanced by an African company is exactly the kind of capability our continent needs." A Phase 1 study cannot show whether a vaccine protects, so this award builds African manufacturing for the next Bundibugyo outbreak more than it changes the course of this one.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

There is no approved vaccine for the type of Ebola now spreading in DR Congo, called Bundibugyo. Moderna, Oxford University and others have at least five candidates in development. CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, pays for early vaccine research. It has given up to US$16.5m to Minapharm, an Egyptian drug company, and its German subsidiary ProBioGen. The money pays for a first small trial in Africa to check the vaccine is safe. The goal is for the vaccine to be made in Cairo eventually, so Africa does not have to wait for supplies from Europe, America or India in the next outbreak.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Bundibugyo vaccine work starts almost from scratch because the species causes outbreaks rarely, so no commercial buyer exists between them. Every candidate depends on CEPI or government grants, and each outbreak restarts the clock.

Africa's main vaccine-making gap, as of 2026, lies in drug substance, the active ingredient. Minapharm's plan reflects that: ProBioGen will make the drug substance in Berlin at first, and Cairo will only fill and finish until technology transfer completes.

CEPI's split bets follow from the science. Its earlier US$4.17m went to testing whether Zaire-species vaccines cross-protect , because no one yet knows which immune response protects against Bundibugyo.

What could happen next?

Opportunity
A Cairo plant able to make the full vaccine would give the African Union's health agency a supplier inside the continent for future Bundibugyo outbreaks.
Long term · Suggested
Consequence
Minapharm's Phase 1 is unlikely to produce data in time to change the course of the 2026 outbreak.
Short term · Assessed
Risk
If Moderna or Oxford reaches efficacy first, demand for a fifth candidate may vanish, repeating the idle-capacity problem of 2022.
Medium term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: In June 2021 WHO launched an mRNA technology-transfer hub at Afrigen in Cape Town to give African manufacturers their own COVID-19 vaccine know-how. The hub produced its own mRNA vaccine at laboratory scale in 2022, but no African-made COVID-19 vaccine reached mass use before demand collapsed.

Counter-parallel: South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare finished Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine in Gqeberha from 2021 and later won a licence to sell it in Africa under its own brand. In 2022 Aspen said it had received no orders, because donated doses had filled the market; local capacity without guaranteed buyers stood idle.

At up to US$16.5m, the award is small next to CEPI's US$196m Ebola pledge listed by Africa CDC. Phase 1 trials are cheap; the expensive steps are Phase 3 and the plant scale-up that follows.

For Minapharm the value lies in the platform. The MVA-CR19 vector, grown in ProBioGen's duck cell line, can be reused for other pathogens, so a working Cairo plant would give Egypt a base for future outbreak vaccines beyond Ebola.

Consensus view: CEPI says the Minapharm design is its only Bundibugyo candidate built to raise both antibody (B-cell) and T-cell responses, and Africa CDC's Jean Kaseya calls an African-made candidate 'exactly the kind of capability our continent needs'. The case rests on supply: a vaccine finished in Cairo would not queue behind orders from richer buyers.

Counter-view: The Independent in Kampala lists faster rivals: Moderna's mRNA-1469 in Phase 1 in Canada since early August and Oxford's ChAdOx1 candidate, made with the Serum Institute of India, in Phase 1 since July. By that measure the outbreak needs the candidate nearest to efficacy data, and Minapharm has not yet dosed anyone.

Key tension: Whether funding a slower African-made candidate buys supply security for the next Bundibugyo outbreak at the cost of speed in this one.

First Reported In

Update #14 · River boat carries Ebola 1,000 km downriver

CEPI· 3 Oct 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

CEPI puts a Bundibugyo vaccine in trials

CEPI added a fifth Bundibugyo candidate after putting its first into trial production in July.

Occurred 31 Jul 2026

Read story →

$4.17m to test Zaire vaccine antibodies

CEPI's August cross-reactivity awards were followed a week later by funding for a species-matched candidate.

Occurred 19 Aug 2026

Read story →

This Event

CEPI awards Minapharm US$16.5m for Ebola

The award adds a fifth Bundibugyo-specific vaccine candidate and plans to move its full manufacture to Cairo.

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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.