Lassa Fever Vaccine Candidate Awarded $27 Million

IAVI announced on June 15, 2021, it received an award of ~US$27 million from the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to conduct a Phase IIb clinical trial of a novel vaccine candidate to prevent Lassa fever disease.

An acute viral illness endemic to many parts of West Africa, Lassa fever causes significant annual outbreaks of disease. Lassa fever is endemic in West Africa, including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Nigeria, says the U.S. CDC.

As a result, there are an estimated 5,000 related deaths each year. Despite this disease burden, which is believed to be significantly underestimated, no vaccine for Lassa fever is currently available, says IAVI.

IAVI’s Lassa fever vaccine candidate, rVSV∆G-LASV-GPC, uses a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vector — the same rVSV platform used for Merck's rVSV-vectored Ebola Zaire vaccine, ERVEBO®, which is now registered for use in eight African countries.

rVSV∆G-LASV-GPC provided high-level protection from Lassa fever in previously conducted animal studies. A phase 1 study is evaluating the Safety and Immunogenicity of the rVSV∆G-LASV-GPC Vaccine in Adults in Good General Health.

IAVI, EDCTP, and CEPI are united in their commitment to global equitable access to vaccines, with rVSV∆G-LASV-GPC to be accessible to all populations that need the candidate vaccine, should it be found safe and effective in clinical testing.