A Year of Progress, Preparedness, and Partnership

When an outbreak begins, as the Marburg outbreak did in Ethiopia late 2025, there is no warm-up period.

There’s little time to build trust, assemble teams, or figure out who does what. Either science is ready, reputations are established, partnerships are in place, and people know how to move — or you’re losing precious opportunity to make a difference.

In 2025, Sabin was tested in exactly those moments as we answered Ethiopia’s request for help responding to their first Marburg outbreak. What was wonderful was that we already had some experience.

Just a year before, Sabin was asked for doses of our investigational cAd3-Marburg Vaccine to support response to an outbreak that was infecting health workers and others in Rwanda. We were in a good position to help when asked. We had clinical trials for the vaccine candidate underway, so we had approved clinical trial protocols, doses manufactured, and multiple country health authorities had reviewed our data.

As our team worked with Rwanda, we learned how to balance both helping respond to the outbreak and generating clinical data for our vaccine. We learned how to stand up a clinical trial, and we learned along with our partners.

So when Ethiopia’s Minister of Health called, we had an informal playbook and knew exactly what we needed to do.

Science in Real Time: Partnering During Outbreaks

From the Rwanda outbreak, we had a playbook for how to partner in carefully designed outbreak research that could generate critical safety and immunogenicity data as well as meet the country’s needs. We had continued robust partnerships with the operational expertise needed in outbreak settings: the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) that funds Sabin’s cAd3-Marburg Vaccine development, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and research organization IQVIA. Our manufacturing partner ReiThera was also well-versed in preparing and delivering vaccine doses for clinical trials/outbreak response.

No two outbreaks are alike, however. In Rwanda, most of the participants in the vaccine trial were working at healthcare centers in the capital, Kigali. In Ethiopia, we had five clinical trial sites set up several hundred kilometers from the capital, Addis Ababa. We had to set up two mobile sites. We used drones to deliver some of the vaccines. We had to constantly adapt, and our partnership, led by the Ethiopia Ministry of Health and the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), made the process expeditious and smooth.

These opportunities are rare. You cannot recreate the complexity of an outbreak in a laboratory. By embedding rigorous science into real-world response efforts — under strong ethical and regulatory oversight — we can help build the evidence needed to strengthen future preparedness.

Building for the Future — Because Everything Starts with a Healthy, Committed Team

Since 2025 was my first full year at Sabin, I spent a lot of time getting to know my team and figuring out where we wanted to grow to support our programs. We defined who we were, and what we needed to support our programs, including the ongoing work of developing two vaccines for licensure.

We began a pretty aggressive staffing plan, intentionally building an organization that is nimble and responsive, but also human. A place where people support each other, take pride in the science, and are willing to lean into the hard work together. That culture doesn’t happen by accident — it’s something we invest in every day, and it’s foundational to everything we accomplish.

By the end of the year, we had tripled the number of R&D employees that are contributing to our mission. We’re still a nimble group that navigated shifting global priorities over the year along with the complex science of meeting the intense regulatory requirements of vaccine approval. The team’s grit and creativity, which were truly important to the outbreak response, prove that being small doesn’t mean you can’t be mighty.

Also in 2025, the Sabin R&D team and our partners continued advancing both our Marburg and Sudan ebolavirus vaccine candidates through complex scientific and regulatory pathways. We started the year running three Phase 2 clinical trials in three countries. We ended the year with six simultaneous clinical trials in five countries, including two in the U.S.. In parallel, we completed critical manufacturing activities and laboratory and animal studies to strengthen the scientific foundation needed to move these vaccines closer to potential licensure.

Looking Ahead

As we move into 2026 and beyond, our focus remains clear: continue advancing our vaccine candidates in innovative ways, respond to evolving partner and country needs, and keep building an R&D organization that is flexible, resilient, and ready.

Vaccine development, especially for unmet medical needs, is long-haul, high-risk work. Progress isn’t always linear. But for communities at risk, this work can mean the difference between having options — or having none.

I’m proud of what we accomplished in 2025. But more than that, I’m proud of how we did it — with people at the center, science grounded in responsibility, and partnerships that hold strong when it matters most.