Africa CDC seeks $18 million for Ebola drug trials in Congo

Africa CDC called for $18 million in urgent funding on June 30 to launch experimental Ebola treatment trials in the Democratic Republic of Congo, warning that any delay could weaken efforts to contain a fast-moving outbreak. The agency said clinical trials were due to begin that week in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, where the first cases of the Bundibugyo strain were confirmed.

The therapies slated for study included Gilead Sciences’ oral drug obeldesivir, remdesivir and an antibody developed by Mapp Biopharmaceuticals, alongside accelerated work on next-generation vaccines. Dr. Jean Kaseya, the Africa CDC director general, said, “We have the science. We now need the funding to use it. Clinical trials must start this week, and every day of delay costs lives we could save.”

The financing gap was narrow compared with the scale of the response Africa CDC said it needed. The agency said vaccine-related studies were largely funded, but therapeutic trials remained underfunded, leaving scientists with tools but not the money or logistics to deploy them at speed. It asked governments, development banks, philanthropies and other partners to provide $16 million within days for the obeldesivir study and another $2 million to $3 million for contact tracing.

The pressure intensified as the outbreak spread beyond its initial footprint. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said on July 1 that Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda had expanded into North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. It reported 1,333 confirmed cases and 399 total related deaths in the DRC as of June 29.

Africa CDC said it was working with the World Health Organization, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations on what it described as one of the fastest scientific responses ever assembled against a newly emerging Ebola strain. The agency’s message was straightforward: the science was ready, but the outbreak’s trajectory would be shaped by whether money and logistics arrived in time to reach Bunia and the wider region before the virus spread further.