Trends in Vaccine Development
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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE NATUREJOBS SPOTLIGHT ON VACCINES Trends in vaccine development How are public-private partnerships, low-cost manufacturers and new technology afecting the vaccine field? “The vaccine field BILL GATES is a handy person to grow over the next few years. the virus was identifed in 1984, to have in your corner, which In the United States, demand researchers were optimistic they is going to enlarge bodes well for those committed to will increase by around 7 percent could formulate a vaccine quickly. vaccine research. In January 2010 annually until 2015, according to a As HIV proved resilient, hopes for substantially beyond the philanthropist called for a 2011 report published by industry a fast response faded and by the SPOTLIGHT ON IMMUNOLOGY / VACCINES ON IMMUNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT “decade of vaccines” and pledged analysts Freedonia. “It’s probably early 1990s several research groups the traditional US$10 billion for vaccine research the best growth area right now in and companies had abandoned and development (R&D) and infectious disease,” says Steve Projan, the search for a vaccine. preventive vaccine.” distribution. Te Bill & Melinda senior vice president of R&D in It became clear that a new Gates Foundation funding will the innovative medicines unit at model of vaccine development was Rafi Ahmed, Emory Vaccine Center boost an already burgeoning feld. vaccine manufacturer MedImmune. needed, one that could bridge the Although vaccines comprise Te industry is being shaped by gap between the public and private a small portion of the global increased collaboration between the sectors and focus on the developing pharmaceutical market — 2 percent public and private sectors, the rise world. As a result, in 1996 IAVI in 2010 — the industry is predicted of low-cost vaccine manufacturers was created with support from and the use of new technologies. several foundations including the Te changes are signifcant for those Rockefeller Foundation, plus the interested in working in the feld. World Bank and other partners. Established with just a handful The three Ps of employees, IAVI now has 105 IMAGE SOURCE Te expansion of public-private in-house research staf — around 75 partnerships (PPPs) is “transforming percent of them with an industry the business of vaccines”, says Gates. background — and in April 2011 it Although the model has been launched a fellowship programme around since the early 1990s, it has to recruit early-career postdocs taken time for vaccine research to be from regions most afected by funded in this way. Camille Locht, the HIV pandemic. It supports director of the Centre for Infection additional research staf through and Immunity of Lille (CIIL) at collaborations with more than 50 the Institut Pasteur in Lille, France, external partners and in February says that fve years ago the prevailing 2012 awarded US$875,000 to two system in Europe was still that of researchers via open innovation competition between the public broker NineSigma. IAVI’s recent and private sectors. “Pharmaceutical research advances include the 2009 companies have realized that for discovery of two human antibodies difcult diseases such as TB there that have a strong neutralizing efect will probably not be a single private on HIV, and the launch of two or public entity that will come up phase-one clinical trials of vaccine with the fnal-stage vaccine,” he says. candidates in Africa in February PPPs working in vaccines include 2011 and December 2011. Te the GAVI Alliance, the Aeras TB 2009 discovery was accomplished partnership and the International through a collaboration with AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). the Scripps Research Institute CIIL is also a PPP, its partners in the United States and other comprising the Institut Pasteur in international partners. Lille — a private foundation — and An early lesson for the initiative the University of Lille, plus French was the importance of recruiting public research institutes CNRS experienced leaders and managers and INSERM. Tese meet needs from the vaccine industry with not prioritised by the traditional proven project management vaccine development pipeline, skills. Vice president of vaccine with HIV a prime example. When development Tomas Hassell, who | NATUREJOBS | 26 APRIL 2012 APRIL 26 | NATUREJOBS | ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE joined IAVI from Sanof Pasteur judged by the World Health in 2008, says getting the right Organisation (WHO) to meet people was important because PPPs international standards of quality, NATUREJOBS generally lack the funds to support safety and efcacy — known as major training programmes. “As far prequalifcation — include the as possible you want the fnished Serum Institute of India; Bharat product,” he says. “You want Biotech, Panacea Biotec and people to get of to a racing start.” Shantha Biotechnics, also based LIGHTHOUSE PHOTOGRAPHY/MEDIMMUNE A major catalyst for the increased in India; Bio-Manguinhos in number of PPPs is the rising cost Brazil; and Bio Farma in Indonesia. of early R&D as identifying new A cholera vaccine produced by vaccine targets becomes more Shantha Biotechnics is being used complicated. Vaccine manufacturers in a pilot programme to halt the are turning to external collaborators spread of the disease in Haiti. In for candidates. “Developing March 2011 WHO opened the a vaccine today is much more way for vaccine manufacturers complex than it was 20 or 30 years in China to submit products for ago,” explains Bruce Carpick, a prequalifcation afer being satisfed biochemist in Sanof Pasteur’s that the country’s regulatory MedImmune headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland in the United States; the SPOTLIGHT ON IMMUNOLOGY / VACCINES ON IMMUNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT analytical R&D arm in Toronto, systems were sufciently robust. company is a leader in respiratory vaccines. Canada. “It’s a natural progression Te decision coincided with news for any major vaccine player to be that Novartis Vaccines had bought looking to the external environment a majority stake in Chinese vaccine for opportunities.” External manufacturer Zhejiang Tianyuan “Each scientifc advance means a Despite common perceptions, collaborators also beneft from Bio-Pharmaceutical in order to new weapon in the armament,” says there isn’t enough pharmacology the arrangement as it can help expand its presence in China, the IAVI’s Hassell. Since recombinant expertise across the industry, he says. their research reach the market, world’s third-largest vaccines market. DNA vaccines emerged in the Tere is a renewed focus on and many government funding Raf Ahmed, director of the early 1980s, vaccine technology basic science to better understand schemes now ofer incentives Emory Vaccine Center (EVC) at has diversifed from culturing and the mechanism of vaccines and to for working with industry. “It’s a Emory University in the United attenuating whole microorganisms. develop new candidates, and an two-way street,” says Carpick. States, says that manufacturers in One recent development is the increasing interest in therapeutic Tere is also increasing India are providing a “tremendous” boom in cheaper, faster DNA vaccines for conditions such as emphasis on safety and governance public health service by producing sequencing. “Genome-wide chronic viral infections and cancer. surrounding vaccines. “Regulatory cut-price vaccines, but still need sequencing is a common tool “Te vaccine feld is going to requirements are much more to build their R&D capabilities. now,” says CIIL’s Locht, explaining enlarge substantially beyond the stringent now than they were He says these companies will need that the technology enables traditional preventive vaccine,” says in the past,” explains Carpick. to collaborate more with research researchers to examine the efects Ahmed of EVC. Bioinformatics “Tat has greatly increased institutes in the United States of a vaccine at the genetic level. and systems biology are also crucial complexity and cost.” and Europe as well as in India in As well as assessing efcacy, DNA aspects of future vaccine research. For now substantial funding order to make progress. To this sequencing can also be used to At MedImmune, a leader in continues to emerge through the end, last month India’s Gennova check vaccines for contamination vaccines for respiratory diseases, PPP model, despite the economic Biopharmaceuticals opened a new with errant genetic material. valued skills include initiative and climate. Last year the GAVI Alliance vaccine-manufacturing facility in Other technologies that have working under multiple managers. secured a fve-year pledge of US$4.3 Pune in western India in partnership become integral to vaccine research “It is increasingly complicated to billion from its donors, exceeding with two Seattle-based non-proft include biochemical techniques discover, develop and commercialise its target of US$3.7 billion, and organizations, the Malaria Vaccine such as protein purifcation and [a new vaccine],” says Projan. in April 2011 the German Federal Initiative (MVI) and the Infectious characterization, and improved “We can’t rely on staid, formal, Ministry for Economic Cooperation Disease Research Institute (IDRI). assaying and imaging tools such hierarchical reporting relationships.” and Development (BMZ) increased Other recent developments that as mass spectrometry, nuclear And it is not just in R&D its contribution to the alliance by could increase Indian research magnetic resonance (NMR) that jobs will expand. “You’re US$20 million, which the Gates capacity include the launch of imaging