Development of Multivalent Vaccine Candidates for Filovirus and Lassa Fever

NIAID is seeking information from pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical product developers on multivalent vaccines and rapidly adaptable vaccine platform technologies against filoviruses (Ebola, Sudan, and Marburg); candidate vaccines may also include a component that confers protection against Lassa Fever. The primary focus of this RFI is to gather information about multivalent filovirus vaccine candidates (with a Lassa Fever vaccine component if feasible) that at a minimum have shown efficacy in nonhuman primate disease models for at least one of the filovirus components. NIAID is also seeking information about any multivalent filovirus vaccine candidates that incorporates technological enhancements. Examples of technological enhancements include but are not limited to any of the following: vaccine presentations or formulations that are stable without the need for cold chain; rapid onset of protective immunity that will permit a prophylaxis indication in a post-event scenario; minimal doses to achieve protection; reasonable complexity of vaccine components (e.g., fewer individual viral constructs are preferable); non-parenteral routes of delivery; needle-free delivery; addressing issues such as anti-vector immunity and vaccine interference often seen with multivalent vaccines; comorbidities (e.g., pathogen burdens) and immunological attributes of individuals in Viral Hemorrhagic Fever endemic areas; and maturity of immune assays that may be used to identify correlates of protection. The emphasis of this RFI is to gather information on multivalent filovirus vaccines, preferably ones that include technological enhancements. Multivalent filovirus vaccine candidates that also incorporate a component to confer protection against Lassa Fever are of interest.