‘Gamechanging’ TB vaccine within reach after $500m pledge to run final trials
The Guardian (6/28), features the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Treatment Action Group
Additional coverage from STAT (6/28), Health Policy Watch (6/29), and The Economist (6/28)
Last week, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust announced that they will jointly invest more than $500 million in phase 3 trials for the GSK-developed M72/AS01E tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, which could become the first new tuberculosis vaccine in 100 years. 2018 phase 2b trials showed that the vaccine was 50 percent effective, but after GSK pulled out because they did not see a commercial market for the vaccine, the company passed the license to the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute in 2020. The phase 3 trials will involve 26,000 people in Africa and Southeast Asia, hopefully confirming the vaccine’s viability as TB cases and deaths rise around the world.
New scheme aims to get vaccines to outbreaks faster, Gavi says
Reuters (6/27), features the CEPI, IAVI, and the Sabin Vaccine Institute
A new initiative led by Gavi, the World Health Organization, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will work to stockpile experimental vaccines for infectious diseases with epidemic potential to improve preparedness for future outbreaks. This global virtual pooled inventory will initially focus on Marburg and the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there are no existing vaccines or proven treatments. Last year’s outbreaks in Africa of these two hemorrhagic fevers saw aborted attempts to move forward clinical trials for vaccines, losing crucial opportunities to gather essential data on potential tools and highlighting the need for this kind of stockpiling, preparation, and partnership.
Medicines Patent Pool announces licenses for generic COVID-19 antiviral
Health Policy Watch (6/27)
The Medicines Patent Pool recently announced sublicensing agreements with seven manufacturers to produce and distribute generic versions of Shionogi’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries, improving availability and equitable access in these countries, even after the end of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The oral antiviral, Ensitrelvir, is currently only approved in Japan, although it is being considered in the United States and all 117 countries in the agreements. Medicines Patent Pool previously signed sublicensing agreements with Pfizer in 2021 to manufacture and distribute its treatment, Paxlovid, in 95 low- and middle-income countries.
