Future of Epidemic and Pandemic Vaccines to Serve Global Public Health Needs

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Epidemiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 4238

Special Issue Editors

1. Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Broad St., Oxford OX1 3BD, UK
2. Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Broad St., Oxford OX1 3BD, UK
Interests: global Health; vaccines R&D and manufacture; health financing; vaccines policy; COVID-19
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Center of Excellence in Vaccine Research and Development (Chula Vaccine Research Center, Chula VRC), Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Interests: allergy; HIV research; vaccine research and development
CEO, Afrigen Biologics (Pty) Ltd., Cape Town 744, South Africa
Interests: vaccine research and development
Office of the President, South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), Tygerberg 7050, South Africa
Interests: developing microbicides for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV vaccines; clinical epidemiology
Facultad de Derecho, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Cra 45, Bogotá, Colombia
Interests: vaccine development and manufacture and equitable access
Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Interests: vaccinology; health systems strengthening and training; child and maternal health and HIV
Visiting Fellow, UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP), University College London, London, UK
Interests: researcher/advocate for social justice and health rights; incl medical innovation prioritizing health needs and equitable access
Virology Department, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, 36, Avenue Pasteur, 220 Dakar, Senegal
Interests: Usutu virus; Zika virus
Head of Research Group, Centre for Technological Innovation, Institute of Drugs Technology–Farmanguinhos, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Interests: pharmaceutical research and development; technology innovation; manufacturing
ISARIC Global Support Centre International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Interests: poverty-related infectious diseases; malaria; tuberculosis; neglected tropical diseases; epidemic infectious diseases

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

To tackle the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, multiple vaccines were developed across different technology platforms in under a year. Coronaviruses are one of many pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential, including possibly some unknown, pathogen X. We have an opportunity to learn and improve our approach in case one day we face a much more pathogenic virus and an even more difficult vaccine development challenge. Many limitations have surfaced including inequality in access, regulatory hurdles, clinical trial challenges, insufficient focus on developing vaccines to tackle epidemics before they become pandemics, failure to break transmission, and unsustainable strategies for dealing with variants not only of SARS-CoV-2 but of future potentially highly mutable pathogens. 

The key to epidemic prevention and more rapid pandemic response will be equitable access to platform technologies as shared global public-good technologies, decentralised innovation, and multiple manufacturers, especially in LMICs. There is talk of flexible, modular pandemic vaccine production systems, WHO-supported vaccine hubs, technology transfer, development of vaccine prototypes or at least of key antigens ready for phase I trials, etc. However, these efforts face challenges including unwillingness of pharmaceutical companies and governments to share IP, and the precariousness of building capacity based on COVID-19 vaccines. 

To sustain the manufacturing capacity in interpandemic periods, a model of vaccine R&D in LMICs needs to be based on sustaining capacity for developing and making many other vaccines, not just pandemic vaccines, and vaccine development and manufacture integrated into economic development planning. Once the current high subsidies are gone, a different investment model will be needed, one that leverages huge public investments and subsidies to extract enforceable commitments to equitable access and to share critical technology so that LMICs can scale up their own vaccine development and manufacturing to tackle future epidemics and pandemics, and that aligns biomedical R&D with global public health interests. This will only happen if we question all prior assumptions, tackle the tensions between commercial and economic interests and scientific and public health interests, and move towards a vaccine research, development, and manufacturing ecosystem that better balances and integrates scientific, clinical trial, regulatory, and commercial interests and puts the needs of global public health first.

Prof. Andrew W. K. Farlow
Prof. Dr. Kiat Ruxrungtham
Prof. Dr. Petro Terblanche
Prof. Dr. Glenda E. Gray
Prof. Carolina Gomez
Prof. Dr. Helen Rees
Dr. Els Torreele
Dr. Amadou Alpha Sall
Dr. Jorge Magalhaes
Prof. Dr. Piero Olliaro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • vaccine access
  • platform technologies (inactivated viruses
  • recombinant proteins
  • viral vectors
  • mRNA) as global public goods
  • LMIC vaccine manufacturers
  • vaccines for epidemic and pandemic prevention
  • new vaccine business model
  • COVID-19 vaccine lessons
  • controlling transmission
  • variants and booster strategies
  • disease X and pathogen X
  • R&D blueprints
  • COVAX
  • regulatory challenges
  • mucosal immunity
  • pan-coronavirus vaccines
  • vaccine prototypes
  • technology transfer
  • modular vaccine production
  • vaccine IP and know-how
  • public investments and subsidies

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Review

14 pages, 329 KiB  
Review
The Future of Epidemic and Pandemic Vaccines to Serve Global Public Health Needs
by Andrew Farlow, Els Torreele, Glenda Gray, Kiat Ruxrungtham, Helen Rees, Sai Prasad, Carolina Gomez, Amadou Sall, Jorge Magalhães, Piero Olliaro and Petro Terblanche
Vaccines 2023, 11(3), 690; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030690 - 17 Mar 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3376
Abstract
This Review initiates a wide-ranging discussion over 2023 by selecting and exploring core themes to be investigated more deeply in papers submitted to the Vaccines Special Issue on the “Future of Epidemic and Pandemic Vaccines to Serve Global Public Health Needs”. To tackle [...] Read more.
This Review initiates a wide-ranging discussion over 2023 by selecting and exploring core themes to be investigated more deeply in papers submitted to the Vaccines Special Issue on the “Future of Epidemic and Pandemic Vaccines to Serve Global Public Health Needs”. To tackle the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, an acceleration of vaccine development across different technology platforms resulted in the emergency use authorization of multiple vaccines in less than a year. Despite this record speed, many limitations surfaced including unequal access to products and technologies, regulatory hurdles, restrictions on the flow of intellectual property needed to develop and manufacture vaccines, clinical trials challenges, development of vaccines that did not curtail or prevent transmission, unsustainable strategies for dealing with variants, and the distorted allocation of funding to favour dominant companies in affluent countries. Key to future epidemic and pandemic responses will be sustainable, global-public-health-driven vaccine development and manufacturing based on equitable access to platform technologies, decentralised and localised innovation, and multiple developers and manufacturers, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). There is talk of flexible, modular pandemic preparedness, of technology access pools based on non-exclusive global licensing agreements in exchange for fair compensation, of WHO-supported vaccine technology transfer hubs and spokes, and of the creation of vaccine prototypes ready for phase I/II trials, etc. However, all these concepts face extraordinary challenges shaped by current commercial incentives, the unwillingness of pharmaceutical companies and governments to share intellectual property and know-how, the precariousness of building capacity based solely on COVID-19 vaccines, the focus on large-scale manufacturing capacity rather than small-scale rapid-response innovation to stop outbreaks when and where they occur, and the inability of many resource-limited countries to afford next-generation vaccines for their national vaccine programmes. Once the current high subsidies are gone and interest has waned, sustaining vaccine innovation and manufacturing capability in interpandemic periods will require equitable access to vaccine innovation and manufacturing capabilities in all regions of the world based on many vaccines, not just “pandemic vaccines”. Public and philanthropic investments will need to leverage enforceable commitments to share vaccines and critical technology so that countries everywhere can establish and scale up vaccine development and manufacturing capability. This will only happen if we question all prior assumptions and learn the lessons offered by the current pandemic. We invite submissions to the special issue, which we hope will help guide the world towards a global vaccine research, development, and manufacturing ecosystem that better balances and integrates scientific, clinical trial, regulatory, and commercial interests and puts global public health needs first. Full article
Back to TopTop