Clinical development of Rift Valley fever vaccines in endemic regions

Initial funding was provided to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in 2019 which was used to support preclinical and clinical development of Rift Valley fever (RVF) and Chikungunya (Chik) vaccines respectively. This funding was provided to applicants as a joint effort between CEPI and the Horizon 2020 programme, under the CEPI Call for Proposals CfP3i. Whilst previous funding has led to the development of pre-licensure Chik vaccines, development of RVF vaccines is at a much earlier stage. Hence, this current application seeks to leverage a further 'Ǩ35M from Horizon Europe, which will be supplemented with 'Ǩ15M from CEPI, making a pool of 'Ǩ50M, which will be used to fund clinical development of RVF vaccine projects under the CEPI follow-up Call for Proposals CfP3ii. It is envisaged that applicants for the CfP3ii funding will have already developed a manufacturing plan and that all preclinical studies have been completed (with the possible exception of Development and Reproductive Toxicology (DART) studies). Applicants will propose Phase I/II trials in endemic regions for vaccines which are in accordance with the WHO Target Product Profile (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/blue-print/call-for-comments/tpp-rift-valley-fever-vaccines-draft3-0pc.pdf?sfvrsn=f2f3b314_2) for RVF vaccines. Awards will usually have a 36-month duration and will be administered by the CEPI secretariat.