Initial Marburg vaccine clinical trial underway

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) officials have initiated the first Marburg vaccine in a Phase 1 adult clinical trial evaluating safety and immunogenicity.

“Given the recent deadly outbreak of Marburg virus in Uganda, there is a critical need to develop a safe and effective vaccine which has the potential to protect our soldiers and the public from this serious threat,” said Lt. Col. Melinda Hamer, chief of the WRAIR Clinical Trials Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, where the trial is being conducted.

The effort details the effectiveness of the VRC-MARADC087-00-VP vaccine, which was developed by the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). The recombinant chimpanzee adenovirus type 3-vectored Marburg virus vaccine candidate being tested is aimed at stimulating rapid but durable immunity.

The work involves 40 adult volunteers enrolled and assigned into one of two groups to evaluate different vaccine dosages, with participants being closely monitored throughout approximately one year after vaccination for safety and immune system response.

The Marburg virus is in the same family as Ebola and causes severe hemorrhagic fever in humans while case fatality rates in Marburg outbreaks have ranged from 24 percent to 88 percent, per authorities.

“This first-in-human trial of the NIH vaccine is part of an important inter-agency effort by the US government to anticipate and counter emerging infectious threats to the Americans, both military and civilian, at home and abroad,” Kayvon Modjarrad, director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch at WRAIR, said.