South Korea's SK bioscience will build an Ebola vaccine with up to $99 million in US support

The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola — one of the virus's lesser-known forms, centred on the Democratic Republic of the Congo — has no vaccine of its own. That gap is now being closed by a three-way partnership: South Korea's SK bioscience will scale up and mass-produce a Bundibugyo vaccine, with the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) providing up to $99 million — $36 million of it already confirmed — alongside the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which will run the clinical programme, and Hilleman Laboratories, which will make the first clinical batches. SK bioscience and its German subsidiary IDT Biologika will handle everything from sterile filling to finished doses, and the team also plans an updated version matched to newer variants of the virus. Phase 1 trials, regulatory work and a pandemic-ready supply chain are all covered by the funding.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: funding & finance