Vaccine Research -- both ends should meet

There is an obvious need for effective drugs and vaccines to treat each of the emerging virus diseases that threaten to cause epidemics or pandemics. Important lessons have been learned from studies of treatments for influenza, sepsis, pneumonia and Ebola. So, investigators have taken up the challenge of “rethinking strategies” for clinical trial design.

Adaptive trials have been tried out for HIV vaccines and could include “... vaccinating the placebo group for immune correlate analyses, adding a booster vaccination if vaccine efficacy appears to wane, or expanding the trial design to include a higher risk population.

The clinical trials with vaccine VPM1002 have commenced in India in June 2017. The vaccine is being assessed for its efficacy against recurrence of TB in adults who have been previously infected with tuberculosis and treated for the same. The phase III clinical trials for newborn immunisation to prevent TB are to follow soon after receiving results from the post-exposure immunisation in adults to prevent recurrence. The ability to prevent initial and sustained TB infections among all age groups is the ultimate target of a universal TB vaccine. VPM has teamed up with Serum Institute of India in conducting the vaccine trials in South Africa and India.

The Oxford COVID-19 vaccine is at least six months away from its launch, Serum Institute of India (SII). As coronavirus cases advance worldwide, the race to come up with a COVID-19 vaccine is accelerating. Despite the fact that approving a new drug involves years of development, the pharmaceutical industry is showing its capacity for innovation and its commitment to shorten deadlines and to be able to have an effective immunization as soon as possible in the face of this pandemic. The experience in the investigation of SARS and MERS, and also that of influenza, is proving strategic at this stage. According to a recent report released by the WHO, a significantly high number of vaccines are being studied and three of them are already in the clinical evaluation stage, being tested. It has already passed the Phase I tests, in which its immunogenicity was positively evaluated, and progress is being made in Phase II studies to analyze pharmacokinetics. The other developments are also taking different therapeutic strategies to try to reach the same goal: to generate an immune response against COVID-19.

With the guidance and recommendations based on lessons learned from other disasters , the research community is showing its potential to improve disaster resiliency. Coordinating bodies like the AAAS, and Indian Immunology Society  are playing much more prominent roles in facilitating long-range planning by offering webinar series. Improved coordination across academia, government, health systems, and industry during crises will also help identify early roles that institutions could play to address critical needs. For example, institutions could deploy expertise, resources, or facilities when there is insufficient incentive or capacity for the private or public sectors to refocus production or facilities rapidly, or when they lack capacity to scale up services such as testing. High quality research publications are being made available freely across several British websites, including https://www.bmj.com. Several traineeship and apprenticeship programs are available for young people to enter into the main stream workforce.(findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk)

It is left to the motivation and aptitude of individual researchers to put all this DATA together to come up with a workable solution. With the pandemic sparing no prince or popper, it should is evident that employers should be accepting applicants irrespective of their ethnicity. It is only human will and generosity that will defeat this virus.