U.S. Dept of Defense Expands Protection Against Nipah Virus

CEPI and the U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND), announced a new agreement on May 28, 2025, that will enable the two organizations to collaborate on projects that expand global defenses against disease outbreaks.

The first agreed-upon project will support the development of a Nipah monoclonal antibody (MBP1F5). JPEO-CBRND will transfer doses of a Nipah monoclonal antibody (MBP1F5)—currently undergoing Phase 1 testing to CEPI for the conduct of a CEPI-funded Phase 1b/2a clinical trial in India and Bangladesh, two countries affected almost annually by Nipah virus outbreaks.

Nipah virus, a zoonotic disease of the Paramyxovirus family, kills up to 75% of the people it infects. There are no approved treatments or vaccines to defend against it.

The World Health Organization states that Nipah vaccine candidates encompass live-attenuated and replication-defective recombinant vaccine platforms based on poxviruses, VSV, adenovirus, measles, rabies, and virus-like particles, as well as subunit vaccines.

So far, Nipah virus outbreaks have been confined to South and Southeast Asia. Still, Pteropus bats (i.e., the virus vector) are found in a large geographical area across the globe, covering a population of more than 2 billion people.

Bruce Goodwin, Joint Project Lead for CBRND Enabling Biotechnologies at JPEO-CBRND, stated in a press release, "Our goal is to provide the U.S. joint force with rapid, resilient, and operationally relevant solutions to protect and defend them against any threat they may face across the globe."

"This partnership with CEPI helps us achieve that goal faster." 

Under the umbrella of the CRADA, CEPI and JPEO-CBRND may also jointly identify future areas of collaboration that support global health security, potentially for use in emergency response situations.