CEPI partner IAVI announces first vaccinations at Liberia site in Phase I clinical trial of Lassa Fever vaccine candidate

NEW YORK - AUG. 31, 2022 - IAVI, a nonprofit scientific research organization, announces that volunteers at the PREVAIL clinical trial site at Redemption Hospital (RH)* in Monrovia, Liberia, have been vaccinated with IAVI's novel vaccine candidate against Lassa fever virus (LASV) in a Phase I clinical trial, named IAVI C102, supported by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). LASV causes significant annual outbreaks of an acute viral illness called Lassa fever, which is endemic, or consistently present, in many parts of West Africa. Outbreaks in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Togo have resulted in nearly 6,000 suspected cases and more than 180 deaths since early 2022, according to reports by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO also reported three recently confirmed cases of and one death from Lassa fever in the U.K. No vaccine for LASV is currently available. An estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Lassa fever cases are reported annually, resulting in approximately 5,000 deaths. However, the true disease burden is currently unknown, and efforts are ongoing to provide a more accurate estimate of disease incidence. The IAVI-sponsored trial is part of the existing partnership with CEPI, launched in 2018, providing up to US$61.7 million to support IAVI and a global consortium of partners to advance IAVI's LASV vaccine candidate through Phase I and II clinical trials. CEPI's ultimate goal, as part of its plan to minimize or even eliminate the risk of future epidemic and pandemic threats, is to produce a licensed Lassa vaccine for routine immunization. Clinical evaluation of IAVI's LASV vaccine candidate is also supported by the Partnership for Research on Vaccines and Infectious Diseases in Liberia (PREVAIL**), a Liberia-U.S. clinical research collaboration established in 2014 by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Ministry of Health in Liberia. In 2015, PREVAIL participated in a clinical trial (PREVAIL 1) of Merck's now-licensed Ebola Zaire vaccine ERVEBO®, which uses the same recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vector backbone as the candidates in IAVI's emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) vaccine development portfolio, including the IAVI LASV vaccine candidate being evaluated in C102. Read more: https://bit.ly/EIDvaxFacts.