Bharat Bio consortium gets $19 m to develop ‘variant-proof’ vaccine
Bharat Bio consortium gets $19 m to develop ‘variant-proof’ vaccine
Subject :Science and Technology
Section: Biotech
Context: An adjuvant subunit vaccine, designed to provide broad protection against all known SARS-CoV-2 variants
Concept: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched at Davos in 2017 as the result of a consensus that a coordinated, international, and intergovernmental plan was needed to develop and deploy new vaccines to prevent future epidemics.
It is an innovative global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organizations working to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and enable equitable access to these vaccines for affected populations during outbreaks.
An adjuvanted subunit: Subunit vaccines are well-established as a reliable and safe platform effective against a variety of infectious diseases such as hepatitis B, diphtheria, pertussis, shingles and human papillomavirus.
What is an adjuvant and why is it added to a vaccine?
An adjuvant is an ingredient used in some vaccines that helps create a stronger immune response in people receiving the vaccine. In other words, adjuvants help vaccines work better. Some vaccines that are made from weakened or killed germs contain naturally occurring adjuvants and help the body produce a strong protective immune response. However, most vaccines developed today include just small components of germs, such as their proteins, rather than the entire virus or bacteria. Adjuvants help the body to produce an immune response strong enough to protect the person from the disease he or she is being vaccinated against. Adjuvanted vaccines can cause more local reactions (such as redness, swelling, and pain at the injection site) and more systemic reactions (such as fever, chills and body aches) than non-adjuvanted vaccines.
Adjuvants have been used safely in vaccines for decades.
Aluminum salts, such as aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, and aluminum potassium sulfate have been used safely in vaccines for more than 70 years. Aluminum salts were initially used in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s with diphtheria and tetanus vaccines after it was found they strengthened the body’s immune response to these vaccines.
Newer adjuvants have been developed to target specific components of the body’s immune response, so that protection against disease is stronger and lasts longer.
Several different adjuvants are used
| Several different adjuvants are used in U.S. vaccines. | ||
| Adjuvant | Composition | Vaccines |
| Aluminum | One or more of the following: amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate (AAHS), aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, potassium aluminum sulfate (Alum) | Anthrax, DT, DTaP (Daptacel), DTaP (Infanrix), DTaP-IPV (Kinrix), DTaP-IPV (Quadracel), DTaP-HepB-IPV (Pediarix), DTaP –IPV/Hib (Pentacel), Hep A (Havrix), Hep A (Vaqta), Hep B (Engerix-B), Hep B (Recombivax), HepA/Hep B (Twinrix), HIB (PedvaxHIB), HPV (Gardasil 9), Japanese encephalitis (Ixiaro), MenB (Bexsero, Trumenba), Pneumococcal (Prevnar 13), Td (Tenivac), Td (Mass Biologics), Tdap (Adacel), Tdap (Boostrix) |
| AS04 | Monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) + aluminum salt | Cervarix |
| MF59 | Oil in water emulsion composed of squalene | Fluad |
| AS01B | Monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) and QS-21, a natural compound extracted from the Chilean soapbark tree, combined in a liposomal formulation | Shingrix |
| CpG 1018 | Cytosine phosphoguanine (CpG), a synthetic form of DNA that mimics bacterial and viral genetic material | Heplisav-B |
| No adjuvant | ActHIB, chickenpox, live zoster (Zostavax), measles, mumps & rubella (MMR), meningococcal (Menactra, Menveo), rotavirus, seasonal influenza (except Fluad), single antigen polio (IPOL), yellow fever | |
Access to vaccines
Under the terms of the funding agreement, the consortium partners have agreed to achieve equitable access to the output of this project.
As repeated waves of Covid infection remind us, we will be living alongside the virus for many years to come. The threat of a new variant emerging that might evade the protection of our current vaccines is real.