DRC launches first-ever clinical trial for Bundibugyo Ebola as outbreak exceeds 1,400 cases
The WHO-sponsored PARTNERS trial enrolled its first patient in Bunia on July 2, testing remdesivir and MBP-134 as the outbreak spreads to Uganda and France and ranks as the second-largest Ebola epidemic on record
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Summary
The WHO, Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Antwerp), and the University of Oxford enrolled the first patient in the PARTNERS trial in Bunia, Ituri Province, on July 2. PARTNERS, the first clinical trial ever to test treatments for Bundibugyo Ebolavirus, assigns patients to four groups: standard care alone, Remdesivir alone, the monoclonal antibody MBP-134 alone, and a combination of both. The trial aims to recruit 700-1,000 participants over six months. The outbreak, declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17, reached 1,406 confirmed cases and 438 deaths in DRC as of June 30; Uganda has recorded cases and France confirmed its first imported case on June 24 in a doctor who flew commercially from Kinshasa. DRC's outbreak is now the second-largest Ebola epidemic in recorded history after the 2014-16 West Africa crisis.
The split
Western scientific institutions and Congolese authorities present the trial as a research milestone, but DRC clinicians and African health advocates note that the trial reflects a long pattern: the continent bears the disease burden while funding, drug development, and data ownership flow outward. Africa CDC's joint response plan requested US$518 million from donors through November 2026 and received US$910 million in pledges, though health officials caution that past Ebola pledges have consistently fallen short of disbursed funds. Chinese and Cuban medical teams operating in Ituri have not been formally enrolled in the PARTNERS protocol, creating a parallel track whose data will not be pooled.
By the numbers
- 1,406 confirmed cases in DRC as of June 30, 2026
- 438 deaths in DRC; case-fatality rate approximately 31%
- Cases in Uganda and one imported case in France (first European case of this outbreak)
- 2nd-largest Ebola outbreak in history (after 2014-16 West Africa: 28,600 cases)
- 0 approved treatments for Bundibugyo ebolavirus exist prior to this trial
- US$910M pledged for the 6-month Africa CDC-WHO response plan
- 700-1,000 participants targeted; 6-month trial duration
Why it matters
Bundibugyo ebolavirus has no licensed vaccine or treatment, unlike Zaire-strain Ebola, where the Ervebo vaccine and monoclonal antibodies mAb114 and REGN-EB3 are approved. The absence of tools constrained every prior Bundibugyo outbreak response. If PARTNERS finds an effective therapy, it also tests whether the adaptive trial design can be deployed at speed during active outbreaks, a model WHO intends to replicate for other neglected pathogens. The outbreak's spread to Uganda and now France raises the pressure on the trial timeline.
What to watch
- Interim results expected within three to four months given the active case pipeline in Ituri
- Whether the French case triggers accelerated WHO risk classification or travel measures
- Uganda's epidemiological link to the Ituri epicenter, which determines whether cross-border containment holds
- INRB and Africa CDC data-sharing arrangement with trial sponsors