Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic announced Dec. 4 that a first subject has been dosed with MVA-BN Filo in a Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity trial, evaluating a heterologous prime-boost regimen of Ebola candidate vaccines. The trial, sponsored by the University of Oxford, is assessing the monovalent cAd3-EBO Z vaccine co-developed by GSK and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Bavarian Nordic’s multivalent MVA-­BN Filo vaccine, designed to protect against Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan and Marburg virus.

Recent preclinical research has shown that by employing an MVA-based booster dose, the vaccine may offer a more robust and durable immune response. The investigators hope to be able to replicate these findings in clinical studies and have therefore chose to include Bavarian Nordic’s MVA-BN Filo vaccine in the study for a heterologous boost.
The study is enrolling 60 healthy adults in three cohorts receiving different doses of the cAd3-EBO Z vaccine. Half of the subjects in each cohort will furthermore receive a booster dose of the MVA-BN Filo vaccine. Primary objective is the assessment of safety and tolerability; secondary objective is the assessment of cellular and humoral immune responses. Preliminary results from the study are anticipated in the first half of 2015.