This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Increased funding needed to usher in new vaccine era
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Four key elements are needed to bring about the next phase of vaccines, including intensified research and development, advocacy, increased financing and increased communication with the public about the benefits of vaccines, according to a panel who spoke on the subject in advance of the GAVI Alliance meeting next week.
Richard Moxon, of the University of Oxford, discussed during a press briefing what he termed a “call to action” paper, published this week in The Lancet. He said as developing countries can afford it, they should contribute more to health care costs.
Moxon’s papers, along with other commentaries in the journal, said increased funding could save some 6.4 million lives in the next 10 years.
In the paper, Moxon said vaccines for tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria are sorely needed, as well as vaccines for several tropical diseases, including leprosy, trachoma, leishmaniasis and others.
“We must also consider vaccines beyond classic infections, such as insulin-dependent diabetes, cancers and degenerative diseases,” he said.
Status of vaccines
Moxon’s paper is part of a series in The Lancet, which looks in-depth at the past successes of vaccines, where the industry is currently and what needs to happen to move forward.
In one of the papers in the series, Moxon said the judicious use of vaccines has eliminated or substantially diminished diseases such as smallpox, poliomyelitis, measles, pertussis, yellow fever and diphtheria. However, he added, many of the vaccines that have been successful in eradicating disease were developed due to identifying antigens that induced immune responses to conserved pathogen components, whereas viruses that have extensive antigenic variability, such as HIV and malaria, may prove more challenging.
In another paper, Infectious Diseases in Children Editorial Board member Steve Black, MD, of the University of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and colleagues said there are other challenges on the horizon in vaccine development; notably, the high price tag associated with vaccine development — about $500 million in the United States. In addition, there is a lack of official guidance for regulatory bodies about recommendations for use of a potential vaccine as a potential stopping block.
|
|
New technologies for vaccines
All of the papers urge looking at new avenues for vaccine development, including applying molecular genetics to develop vaccines against as yet unpreventable infections, such as for Neisseria meningitidis type b and Staphylococcus aureus. They said genetic research is a promising area for vaccine development. For example, recognizing those with a genitive predisposition to adverse reactions to specific vaccines could result in more selective immunization policies.
All of the papers agreed that increased funding from governments, as well as agencies such as GAVI, are needed to usher in the next era of successful vaccines.
 |
Follow the PediatricSuperSite.com on Twitter. |