The development of a vaccine to prevent Ebola virus disease will be accelerated with support from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).

Under a one-year contract with Profectus BioSciences Inc., headquartered in Baltimore, ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will provide approximately $5.8 million in funding, in addition to subject matter expertise and technical assistance, to further develop an experimental Ebola vaccine. The company will manufacture vaccine for use in animal safety studies and future clinical trials and conduct animal studies to test safety. The contract can be extended to a total of 13 months and $8.6 million.

Upon successful completion of this work, the company is expected to submit an investigational new drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This application, once accepted by the FDA, would allow the vaccine to begin the first clinical trials for safety in humans.

“We are pushing hard to advance the development of multiple products as quickly as possible for clinical evaluation and future use in preventing or treating this deadly disease,” said BARDA Director Robin Robinson, Ph.D. “Our goal is to close the global gap in vaccines and therapeutics needed to protect the public health from Ebola as highlighted by the epidemic in West Africa.”