The EBO-PEP project : EBOla Zaïre Post-Exposure Prophylaxis, preparedness and efficacy evaluation during outbreak in Central and West-Africa.

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreaks represent significant threats to public health and require effective countermeasures to minimize transmission and reduce mortality. The r-VSV-ZEBOV vaccine (Ervebo®) demonstrated efficacy in protecting contacts and contacts of contacts and has since been widely used in ring vaccination strategies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) outbreaks. However, its efficacy for high-risk contact is more and more debated. Furthermore, two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), Ansuvimab (Ebanga®) and REGN-EB3 (Inmazeb®), have demonstrated their efficacy as treatment in reducing mortality in patients with EVD. With the availability of these management and prevention tools, the question of their use in Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), to protect individuals from contracting EVD after a high-risk contact, is more important than ever to effectively control EVD. The EBO-PEP consortium built on a highly successful collaboration between African and European institutions and NGOs. and allow to maintain a network for knowledge sharing and consortium collaboration to fight against EVD in Africa. The overall objective of the EBO-PEP project is to increase the portfolio of therapeutics tools against EVD, by evaluating a PEP strategy for high-risk contact. This will be accomplished through a multi-epidemic, multi-countries phase III clinical trial to test the efficacy of mAbs used as PEP during outbreak period. To address this objective, we focus our activities on 3 specific objectives: - to set up a multi-epidemic, multi-site and multi-countries phase III clinical trial in Africa to test the efficacy of mAbs used as PEP for EVD high-risk contact (EBO-PEP study), - to strengthen the capacities of clinical researchers and increase the knowledge and engagement of the community on EVD research, - to define the best PEP strategy for high-risk contact and to advocate for PEP implementation in the countries affected by EVD.