Public Health Vaccines & Institut Pasteur de Dakar announce strategic partnership around Marburg virus vaccine in Africa

Strategic partnership enables manufacturing of PHV’s Marburg vaccine candidate (PHV01) at IPD’s flagship MADIBA facility and access to the vaccine in Africa.

CAMBRIDGE, MA, UNITED STATES, December 18, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Public Health Vaccines, LLC (PHV), a biotechnology company out of Cambridge, MA, and Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD), a Senegalese not-for-profit foundation, today announced the formalization of a strategic partnership and licensing arrangement enabling technology transfer of PHV’s Marburg vaccine candidate (PHV01) to IPD’s flagship Vaccine Research Centre (VRC) and ultimately access to the vaccine in Africa. The Marburg virus, a close relative of Ebola that causes severe haemorrhagic fever and has a fatality ratio of up to 88%, is responsible for sporadic outbreaks, with the most recent occurring in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Equatorial Guinea.

The PHV01 vaccine is a live, attenuated rVSV vector expressing the glycoprotein of MARV (Angola) that utilizes the same vector system as the approved rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine against Ebola Zaire and is known for inducing a rapid onset of protection after a single dose. The vaccine leverages the proven recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) vector platform originally developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to develop a single-dose vaccine against Marburg Virus.

IPD is a WHO Collaborating Centre for Arboviruses and Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers and Regional Reference Laboratory for the Africa CDC. The Marburg vaccine represents the fourth vaccine to be publicly announced in IPD’s outbreak vaccine portfolio and will be made available in resource-limited settings at an affordable cost to address outbreaks and public health emergencies.

“In our dedication to advancing public health in Africa, the production of a Marburg vaccine stands as a significant milestone, offering a vital tool to halt the virus's spread, alleviate strain on healthcare systems, and save lives in the region. Through our partnership with PHV, we are proud to contribute to enhancing the region's capacity to respond to public health emergencies, specifically addressing Marburg virus outbreaks. The transfer and production of the Marburg vaccine at our Vaccine Research Centre (VRC) facility demonstrates our commitment to empowering Senegal and other African countries in managing and controlling infectious diseases within their borders." Said Dr. Ibrahima Socé Fall, CEO of Institut Pasteur de Dakar.

Michael McGinnis, PHV’s Chief Business Officer, commented, “We are thrilled to finalize this strategic partnership with IPD and enable long-term access to our important PHV01 candidate vaccine in Africa. With our shared public health missions and vaccine focus, this arrangement made sense from our initial interactions. We look forward to our continued collaboration with IPD on this and other vaccine development efforts in the future.”

The development of PHV01 has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR); Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under Contract No. HHSO1002019000022C. The technology transfer of PHV01 to IPD is currently being funded by the UK Government under a grant from Innovation UK (Phase 1 of 2 Ref. #10087845). IPD’s Vaccine Research Centre is supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Gates Foundation and CEPI.

----------------------------------------------

About Public Health Vaccines, LLC
Public Health Vaccines, LLC. (PHV), headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a privately-held biotechnology company developing products for the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases. The company’s initial focus was to develop vaccines against Marburg virus and Sudan ebolavirus utilizing the rVSV platform in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). PHV is also developing a vaccine against Nipah virus, in collaboration with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) utilizing the same rVSV platform.
For more information, please visit www.phvaccines.com or email info@phvaccines.com.


About Institut Pasteur de Dakar
Founded in 1924, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar is a non-profit foundation under Senegalese law, recognized as a public utility. It is committed to ensuring equitable, sustainable and affordable access to health in Senegal, across Africa, and globally. IPD is one of the four WHO prequalified manufacturers to supply yellow fever vaccines to UN Agencies. IPD conducts cutting-edge biomedical research, develops vaccines and diagnostics, provides essential public health services, and trains the next generation of African health professionals. For more information, visit www.InstitutPasteurDakar.sn and follow us on social media: @PasteurDakar.

Communications
Public Health Vaccines
info@phvaccines.com

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.