Institut Pasteur in Paris has launched ACT-CHIK, a €15.3 million four-year project that will bring a novel chikungunya vaccine to clinical trials across four African countries—Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal—while simultaneously preparing to manufacture the vaccine on the continent itself. For millions living in regions where this mosquito-borne disease thrives, the project represents a turning point in access to protection against an illness that causes debilitating joint pain lasting months or even years.
Chikungunya, transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, has become an urgent public health priority in Africa. Over the past two decades, reported cases have surged across the continent, yet the disease remains widely underdiagnosed and underreported in areas where multiple arboviruses and malaria circulate simultaneously. Climate change is expanding mosquito populations further, making outbreaks increasingly likely across Africa and beyond. While vaccines exist, they remain inaccessible to most people in endemic regions due to cost and distribution barriers—a gap that has left entire populations vulnerable.
The MV-CHIK vaccine offers a distinctly different approach, built from the ground up with African populations in mind. Developed at Institut Pasteur, it is a live-attenuated, recombinant vaccine using the well-established measles virus Schwarz vaccine strain as a vector. This platform technology is neither experimental nor untested: six Phase I and II clinical trials involving approximately 600 adult participants across Europe, the United States, and Puerto Rico have already demonstrated satisfactory safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity profiles. Now, the ACT-CHIK trial will expand this evidence to African populations by enrolling 940 participants across diverse age groups—adults (18–55 years), adolescents (12–17 years), and children (5–11 years)—in both endemic and non-endemic areas.
What sets ACT-CHIK apart is its commitment to local manufacturing. The project will conduct a comprehensive technology transfer to Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD), Africa's only WHO-prequalified vaccine manufacturer, positioning it to eventually produce the vaccine on the continent. This aligns directly with the African Union's ambitious 2040 target of producing 60 percent of Africa's vaccine needs locally. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz in Brazil, another member of the Pasteur Network, will contribute its vaccine manufacturing expertise to support the process. The consortium also includes the University of Rwanda and additional African research institutions, creating a truly continental partnership.
Beyond the trial itself, ACT-CHIK will develop a regulatory pathway for licensure in Africa through engagement with national authorities and the World Health Organization's prequalification teams. This systematic approach addresses not only the scientific questions but also the administrative and infrastructure challenges that have historically slowed vaccine access across the region.
Funded by the Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon Europe program, ACT-CHIK demonstrates a model of equitable vaccine development: science conducted by and for African populations, with manufacturing capability anchored firmly on the continent. For communities where chikungunya has been a recurring scourge, the project offers something rarely seen—a vaccine developed not for travelers, but for them.