BARDA Must Share Potential Ebola Treatment with Global Outbreak Response
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Public Citizen, Health Global Access Project, and eight organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Department of Health and Human Services urging the U.S. government to share candidate Ebola Bundibugyo therapeutics that it has in its possession and coordinate with the World Health Organization, Africa CDC, affected-country governments, medical humanitarian organizations and international and civil society to address current and future outbreaks.
The current Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak is caused by a less common strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved therapeutics, vaccines, or rapid tests. There are, however, promising candidate treatments that the World Health Organization has recommended for testing in emergency clinical trials. The U.S. Government has invested in the development of Ebola therapeutics for years, with an aim to protect national security through a ready supply of stockpiled medicines. One of the treatments under development — MBP134 — could be of use in trials in affected countries fighting Ebola Bundibugyo now, but the US has so far only publicly confirmed that it will make it available to certain at-risk Americans.
“BARDA reportedly owns the doses of a key investigational Ebola Bundibugyo treatment, but has not said whether it will provide access to those doses where they would be of most use, fighting the outbreak and saving lives,” said Peter Maybarduk, Access to Medicines Director at Public Citizen. “The Trump Administration’s cuts have slowed down the response against Ebola and risked lives. Now, at a minimum, we need effective interagency coordination and communication with the public about what is being done to fight this outbreak.”
The letter also calls on the U.S. to help ensure future access to medical countermeasures developed with public funding, including by embedding global access assurances in its research and development agreements.