Supply delays hit planned Ebola vaccine stockpile

Supply chain delays must be addressed to speed up creation of a stockpile of vaccines against deadlyEboladisease, researchers say.

疫苗联盟GAVI和合作伙伴周二宣布，一旦完全运营，低和下部中等收入国家将能够免费获得500,000剂剂量的库存，并支持推出免疫计划的运营成本。

However, international organisations warned it could take up to three years to reach the target.

“By creating a stockpile of 500,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine, available to all countries, we can help prevent loss of life and swiftly end Ebola outbreaks in the future,”

加维首席执行官塞思·伯克利（Seth Berkley）

The new Ebola vaccine was used to tackle a two-year long outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which was declared over last June after 300,000 people were immunised.

The injectable Ervebo vaccine (rVSV-ZEBOV-GP), manufactured by Merck, Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Corp., is effective against the most common Zaire strain of the virus. It has been approved by eight African countries following a fast-trackedprequalification processby the World Health Organization (WHO), certifying its safety and efficacy.

The stockpile will include licensed doses of Ervebo, which has also been approved by European and US regulators, said Gavi, as well as other candidate vaccines in the pipeline once licensed.

The stockpile will be housed in Basel, Switzerland, and managed by an国际协调组织，包括联合国机构以及联合国儿童基金会，以及无国界的援助机构（MSF）以及红十字会和红新月会的国际联合会（IFRC）。

On request from a country, vaccines can be made available together with ultra-cold chain packaging by the manufacturer for emergency response shipment, the WHO said.

但是，无国界医生警告说，由于“供应瓶颈”，目前只有6,890剂可用的剂量，并表示满足500,000个目标可能需要三年。谁还说这可能需要两到三年。

David Heymann, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The challenge for the Ebola stockpile is to have enough vaccine immediately ready to roll out – hopefully there will be more vaccines to add to the stockpile in the future.”

He stressed that the vaccine was only licensed for the Zaire Ebola strain and may not work effectively for other strains.

The first deliveries of doses into the stockpile are being funded through a US$20 million contribution from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Since Ebola outbreaks are relatively rare and unpredictable, there is no natural market for the vaccine, the WHO explained.

Gavi said it had created “strong incentives” for vaccine manufacturers through an advance purchasing commitment to procure doses once they were prequalified by the WHO.

2013 - 2016年在西非流行病之后，埃博拉疫苗的开发加速了，在几内亚，利比里亚和塞拉利昂造成11,300多人死亡。

Guyguy Manangama, head of the Ebola response at MSF, who worked on the last Ebola outbreak in the DRC, said vaccination was one of the most effective ways of fighting Ebola epidemics and the stockpile would allow rapid deployment in endemic areas, but added it “should not limit efforts for the development of other vaccine candidates”.

“It will be necessary to ensure a good system of replenishment of this stock so as not to deal with disruptions on the ground at critical times of epidemics, to continue research in order to improve and adapt the cold chain according to the context, so that to have a more stable vaccine that does not require a complex cold chain,” he said.

新冠肺炎

Gavi chief executive Seth Berkley said the Ebola vaccine had “set a precedent for fast-tracking development and production of vaccines against COVID-19”.

Gavi还与WHO共同领导Covax计划，旨在采购和确保Covid-19疫苗的公平分配。

“By creating a stockpile of 500,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine, available to all countries, we can help prevent loss of life and swiftly end Ebola outbreaks in the future,” Berkley added.

Marianne Comparet, director of the London-based International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases, was optimistic, despite the time it will take to reach the full stockpile.

“The fact that such major organisations have partnered together on this will ensure accelerated scrutiny, at the highest level and in-field, of the supply-chain bottlenecks,” she said.

MSD的发言人说，该公司正在与WHO疫苗补充和供应的WHO紧密合作。

“我们正在迅速采取行动制造许可的Ervebo剂量，这可能需要适当的时间。在此期间，我们一直致力于继续提供调查剂量以进行暴发反应。”他说。