Inspired by the extraordinary pace of the development of Covid-19 jab, a global TB vaccine R&D roadmap has been launched at an international conference to replace the century old BCG TB vaccine.
The EDCTP and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD) on Tuesday announced the roadmap at the virtual Global Forum on TB Vaccines being held from April 20 to 22.
More than 250 participants that involved researchers, developers, funders, regulators, and other key stakeholders attended the special launching session.
EDCTP is an EU-funded partnership between institutions mandated by the governments of 14 European and 16 African countries. The AIGHD is a collaborative institute of the University of Amsterdam and the VU University Amsterdam.
The pandemic witnessed the extraordinary pace of the development of numerous vaccines to protect people from COVID-19. Until the pandemic that hit in 2020, tuberculosis (TB) was known as the world’s biggest infectious disease killer.
Within a year, numerous vaccines have been developed to protect people from Covid-19. But the BCG TB vaccine was developed in 1920s. So an effective vaccine that will adequately protect adolescents and adults from TB that affects 10 million people each year and kills 4000 people daily remains a priority.
The new roadmap identifies priorities for the development and implementation of new TB vaccines with the aim to coordinate and accelerate global action.
The project was carried out in close collaboration with the World Health Organization.
With more than 1.4 million deaths a year, TB is a major global public health challenge, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Ambitious global TB control goals have been established, but it is widely recognised that these will not be achieved without safe and effective vaccines.
Despite the huge global burden of disease, there is little commercial incentive to develop new TB vaccines – no new vaccine has been introduced since BCG in the 1920s.
Addressing the need for new vaccines will require coordinated cross-sectoral partnerships and a focus on “end-to-end” development, from early-stage discovery research through to programmatic implementation.
“Our enduring commitment to actively contribute to a concerted global R&D effort that will ultimately end TB, is the main drive for investing in this very consultative new global TB vaccine roadmap. This launch is timely to leverage recent advances and new opportunities arising from lessons learnt from other diseases such as COVID-19,” said Dr Michael Makanga, EDCTP Executive Director.
“This roadmap reflects a collective analysis by end-users, implementers, regulators, funders, manufacturers, and researchers of the barriers in TB vaccine R&D and the actions we need to take to overcome them. It lists concrete steps that we strongly hope will be taken by each of these actors. For COVID-19, collective effort has brought tremendous acceleration of vaccine development. Let’s show we can do this for TB as well,” said Prof. Frank Cobelens, Chair of the Executive Board, AIGHD.
The Roadmap has been developed through an iterative global consultative process designed to identify the key barriers to TB vaccine R&D and implementation, and potential ways in which they might be overcome. It is intended to provide a shared set of priorities to guide the activities of all stakeholders with an interest in TB vaccine development and use.
The consultation led to the identification of three priorities: 1) diversify the pipeline; 2) accelerate clinical development; and 3) ensuring public health impact. Three cross-cutting enabling factors were also identified: funding, open science and stakeholder engagement.
Development of the Global TB Vaccine R&D Roadmap was supported by EDCTP through a grant to AIGHD.
The Roadmap is funded by the EDCTP2 programme under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
The Global Forum on TB Vaccines is the world’s largest gathering of stakeholders striving to develop new vaccines to prevent TB. It will review the state of the field, share the latest research findings, and identify new and innovative approaches to TB vaccine R&D.
The forum is convened by the STOP TB Partnership Stop TB Partnership Working Group on New TB Vaccines and organised with International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative.
