Breakthroughs Blog: Ebola

For decades, strong US government investment in biomedical innovation has fueled the development of new vaccines, treatments, and other breakthrough global health technologies that have saved and improved millions of lives around the world and here at home. Unfortunately, in recent months, we have seen these investments decline significantly, as the US government has shrunk its foreign assistance footprint and ended hundreds of medical research grants. With the majority of global health research programs at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and many other key US agency programs facing an uncertain future, past progress and future gains in global health innovation are now at risk. These disruptions threaten to undermine the United States’ longstanding role as a global leader in biomedical innovation, compromise the return on previous investments, and heighten health risks for people in the United States and around the world.The current US administration has signaled its priority to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous—a goal which is directly aligned with the outcomes of global health research and development (R&D). By embracing ongoing commitments and continuing to invest in global health R&D, US policymakers can safeguard the well-being, resilience, and economic prosperity of the American people—advancing the agenda of the US administration while simultaneously saving and improving lives around the world. Global health R&D protects Americans from disease threats and promotes international stabilityDisease threats know no borders. Americans are increasingly at risk of emerging and neglected diseases, as underscored by the recent domestic outbreaks of H5N1, measles, mpox, and tuberculosis. Right now, health technologies developed with US funding are protecting Americans and ensuring that the United States is equipped with the proper tools to mitigate disease threats. The 2025 outbreak of Sudan virus, which can cause Ebola disease in humans, in Uganda was the latest Ebola outbreak that endangered the well-being of citizens worldwide. In addition to providing critical monetary and technical assistance contributions to Uganda to combat this outbreak, the US government also donated courses of an experimental monoclonal antibody treatment that was developed with US funding and 500 rapid detection test kits to support ongoing surveillance and prevention of future outbreaks. Additionally, other global partners launched two major clinical trials testing an experimental vaccine and therapeutics, including the monoclonal antibody therapy and an antiviral treatment, all of which were developed with past US government support. Collectively, these interventions and the rapid response effort helped stop the virus from spreading beyond Ugandan borders, ultimately protecting lives around the world and quelling the potential threat to Americans. Thanks to sustained US investment in Ebola research and outbreak response since 2011, the United States had the knowledge, infrastructure, and tools needed to respond quickly and effectively to the recent outbreak—minimizing the threat to regional stability and American public health.Beyond Ebola, the US government has also advanced other global health breakthroughs that have directly benefited Americans, including new drug-resistant tuberculosis treatments, long-acting HIV prevention and treatment options, and vaccines for mpox.Global health R&D strengthens US global influence, while also protecting military personnelGlobal health R&D has historically been a powerful diplomatic tool for the United States in strengthening its partnerships and ties around the world. By drawing back its investments, the United States risks ceding leadership in the foreign policy and medical research space to other countries—including its geopolitical rivals—who could step up to fill part of the vacuum left behind. Take China for example: in recent years, it has continued to grow its R&D investments, diminishing the gap between American and Chinese investments. Additionally, at the 2024 Forum on China Africa Cooperation, the Chinese government announced plans to encourage Chinese businesses to invest in the production of medicines and vaccines in Africa as part of its 2025-2027 action plan. As other global actors expand their influence in global health, including through increased investment in medical innovation and manufacturing, the United States must remain engaged to preserve its leadership, uphold its values, and continue delivering lifesaving impact around the world. Diminished leadership in global health innovation could also increase the vulnerability of US military personnel stationed around the world. Infectious diseases are the single largest cause of hospitalizations of US servicemembers during conflicts, representing an average of nearly 60 percent of casualties in recent conflicts. Global health technologies advanced through foreign assistance dollars and non-defense spending have helped keep US warfighters healthy and safe. For example, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helped create a test to ensure US military uniforms treated with malaria-targeting insecticides remain effective, and USAID supported the development of tafenoquine, a single-dose medicine used to treat Plasmodium vivax malaria, as well as the only US Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease common in the Middle East. Without continued investments in research, challenges like growing antibiotic resistance could put the US military in an increasingly vulnerable position.Global health R&D drives American innovation and prosperityBetween 2007 and 2022, the US government invested just under $46 billion in R&D for neglected diseases, emerging infectious diseases, and sexual and reproductive health issues (To put this amount in context, in 2022 alone, the US government spent $751 billion on defense and $1.34 trillion on Medicare and Medicaid). This relatively modest investment helped contribute to the development of 67 new technologies approved since 1999 for neglected and emerging diseases (excluding COVID-19) and fueled a burgeoning pipeline of 261 promising products in late-stage development, which could further reduce the human and economic toll of these diseases.Beyond its health impact, this investment has also delivered substantial economic benefits to the US economy. Between 2007 and 2022, at least 86 percent of all funding that the US government directed to global health R&D was reinvested in American companies and institutions. This investment has created an estimated 600,000 new American jobs, spurred $104 billion in direct economic activity, and yielded scientific knowledge to inspire further innovations, which will ultimately generate $255 billion in long-term benefits to the American economy.These investments have also proven their potential to create cost savings, by driving down health care costs or preventing costly care down the line. For example, switching all patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis to regimens incorporating a new drug, pretomanid, which was developed with support from USAID and the National Institutes of Health, could generate global cost savings of $740 million annually. Even modest investments in scientific research can yield significant economic returns for the United States. The good we do makes us great Investment in global health R&D makes up just a small portion of the federal budget—around 0.8 percent in fiscal year 2022—but it has a priceless impact on the lives and livelihoods of Americans and people in need around the world. When the United States invests in global health research, we create opportunities and benefit the health of people in our nation and around the world. We fuel innovation at home. We create jobs. We make friends and allies. We make the world safer, and we make our world safer too. It’s the good we do, in part, that makes us great. As the US government reimagines its foreign assistance architecture and makes future research funding decisions, global health R&D efforts must be prioritized to preserve the progress we’ve made and deliver the bold breakthroughs of tomorrow. Sustaining the US government’s commitment to global health R&D will yield strategic and cost-effective benefits, bringing us closer to a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America and world—but only if we are able to meet the moment we are in.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. A new study explores the novel use of artificial intelligence (AI) to screen for antimicrobial compound candidates that could be developed into new tuberculosis (TB) drug treatments, as the rise of drug-resistant strains of TB underscores the urgent need for new drug candidates. While discovering new TB drug candidates through traditional laboratory methods is laborious and time-consuming, sensitive machine learning is better and faster at helping interpret complicated images of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium, accelerating TB research capabilities and helping identify optimal candidate compounds for drug development.A COVID-19 nasal vaccine will enter a Phase 1 clinical trial conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States this spring. While COVID-19 cases have fallen dramatically since the height of the pandemic, the virus continues to circulate and cause severe illness and death. The nasal vaccine is designed to induce strong immunity in the nose and upper respiratory tract where the virus enters the body, aiming to not only reduce serious illness and death but also to stop transmission in the first place, which cannot be achieved through COVID-19 vaccines that are injected into the body. If proven successful, the technology could also be adopted for other common respiratory viruses, including seasonal influenza, avian flu, and respiratory syncytial virus.Uganda recently launched a trial of IAVI’s experimental vaccine targeting the Sudan virus, which causes Ebola disease, following the identification of an outbreak in the country that has, so far, killed one person and infected two others. There are no currently approved vaccines for Sudan virus, although there is a vaccine for the Zaire strain of Ebola, highlighting the urgent need to generate data about vaccine candidates in the pipeline when outbreaks arise. Ugandan health authorities and research teams have rapidly jumped into action to prepare for the trial—2,160 doses of the trial vaccine and treatments arrived in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, over the weekend.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. Last Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had prequalified a point-of-care assay that can help guide the treatment of Plasmodium vivax malaria. The assay, developed by SD Biosensor and PATH, detects glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, which can lead to severe anemia in patients taking certain drugs to treat P. vivax malaria. This designation aims to improve access to the diagnostic in countries facing a high burden of malaria, enabling improved treatment for patients. The announcement arrives shortly after WHO prequalified two drugs for the treatment of P. vivax malaria last month.Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery Center have developed the first nanobody-based inhibitors targeting the Ebola virus, a deadly pathogen with a fatality rate of about 50 percent. Nanobodies are small antibodies derived from animals that can penetrate areas of viruses and human tissues that larger antibodies cannot reach, providing protection against infection. The team, which previously developed nanobodies to target COVID-19, found promising results for their nanobodies in lab tests in Ebola-infected mice. If this research continues to be successful, it could pave the way for treatments not only for Ebola but also for other viruses in the same family, including Sudan ebolavirus and Marburg virus.Last week, the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) announced $2.6 million in funding to Clarametyx Biosciences to develop an anti-biofilm vaccine that could help prevent serious bacterial infections and mitigate the rise of antibiotic resistance. Specifically, the funding will support the further development of the company’s pathogen-agnostic vaccine candidate designed to prevent the formulation of bacterial biofilms, which are protective layers that bacteria use to shield themselves from antibiotics and the immune system, therefore allowing the body’s immune system to clear infections without the use of antibiotics. Hard-to-treat bacterial infections associated with biofilms are estimated to be responsible for up to 80 percent of bacterial infections and are known to contribute to the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the prequalification of Bavarian Nordic’s MVA-BN vaccine for mpox, the first-ever vaccine for the virus on the prequalification list. Prequalification status is anticipated to facilitate timely and increased access to the vaccine, helping to contain the current outbreak on the African continent by accelerating procurement by governments and international agencies and enabling national regulatory authorities to fast-track additional approvals. The vaccine has been licensed for use in people 18 years and older with a two-dose schedule given a month apart. However, the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts has specifically recommended the use of the vaccine for people at a high risk of exposure in the context of an outbreak; thus, the vaccine has been used in infants, children, adolescents, and pregnant and immunocompromised people. It has also recommended single-dose use to stretch limited supplies while also urging the need to collect additional data about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy in these circumstances.Last week, Gilead published new results from the highly anticipated PURPOSE 2 trial, the second Phase 3 study of its twice-yearly, long-acting drug for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), lenacapavir. The trial showed that the drug was able to reduce HIV infections by 96 percent compared with background HIV incidence and was 89 percent more effective than Gilead’s already available PrEP drug, Truvada. The study, which included more than 3,000 cisgender men, transgender men and women, and gender non-binary individuals aged 16 and older across seven countries, was unblinded early to offer lenacapavir to all patients in the study. This news follows the exciting results from the PURPOSE 1 trial of the drug in cisgender women and adolescent girls, which demonstrated 100 percent efficacy and was also unblinded early. Lenacapavir is currently available for use alongside other agents in patients with multidrug-resistant HIV, which make up only 2 percent of adults living with HIV, but, if approved for additional populations, the drug could be available as soon as 2025 and could be a game-changer for the HIV epidemic. Emergent BioSolutions last week announced that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) awarded the company a $41.9 million research and development option to its existing ten-year contract to further the development, validation, commercialization, and scale-up of the company’s monoclonal antibody treatment for Ebola virus infection. The treatment, Ebanga, was initially developed by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics with support from BARDA and was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as a single infusion for the treatment of Ebola Zaire virus infection in 2022. The award is part of BARDA’s broader strategy to support treatments that can be deployed during virus outbreaks.