Hannah Sachs-Wetstone

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.Last week, Ghana became the first country to approve a new malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute. The vaccine, R21, is the second-ever vaccine for malaria authorized for use by regulators. Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority approved the shot for use in children between 5 and 36 months old based on final data from an ongoing phase 3 trial in almost 5,000 children. The results have yet to be published but were shared with regulatory agencies. The vaccine could become an important tool in the fight against malaria and in reducing child mortality, especially if Ghana’s approval is echoed in other countries and by the World Health Organization. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the consequences of limited genome sequencing capabilities on the African continent and has pushed national laboratories to ramp up their ability in preparation for future pandemics. Thirty-nine African countries now have the equipment and skilled workforce for sequencing, as part of a continent-wide network with specialized training centers and regional hubs. However, capacity levels across laboratories vary, and there is a need to move beyond sequencing the virus that causes COVID-19 to broader applications and for increased training in data analysis.The Biden administration last week announced the launch of Project Next Gen, the US$5 billion-plus program that succeeds the President Trump-era Operation Warp Speed to accelerate the development of new coronavirus vaccines and treatments to address COVID-19 and future coronavirus threats. The program will primarily focus on three objectives: creating long-lasting monoclonal antibodies, advancing vaccines that produce mucosal immunity, and developing pan-coronavirus vaccines. Administration officials expressed their hope that the program can generate strong next-generation vaccines and treatments, delivering breakthroughs that could also potentially benefit other health R&D areas as well

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.French researchers are investigating after 59 percent of individuals in a new mpox outbreak cluster claim to be vaccinated, raising fears that the virus has mutated. The investigation will look at various questions, including when the individuals were vaccinated and at what dose, as well as whether they share a common characteristic like having HIV that could impact the effectiveness of the vaccine. If other possibilities are ruled out, French health authorities will start looking at the possibility of a mutation in the virus. The vaccine, Imvanex or Jynneos, is a third-generation smallpox vaccine. There is no specific vaccine for mpox, and this investigation could yield important data about the real-life efficacy of this vaccine for the virus, which is expected to remain a public health issue.This week, German diagnostics startup Midge Medical announced a partnership with the Institut Pasteur de Dakar to offer a rapid molecular diagnostic test for Marburg virus for field testing on the African continent. The collaboration started with a request from the Institut to adapt the startup’s Minoo system, a portable, battery-operated, isothermal amplification instrument with smartphone connectivity enabling data analysis and readout of results, which was previously used for COVID-19 testing. Midge Medical said they integrated the Marburg virus test into the Minoo platform within a month and delivered a prototype assay and provided training to staff at the Institut for field testing, where it has been favorably received.German scientists have reported promising results for a nasal vaccine for COVID-19 tested in hamsters. While this vaccine is not yet close to rollout, other nasal vaccines have been in use in China and India since last fall (although studies about their effectiveness has not yet been published) and at least four other nasal vaccines for COVID-19 are in late-stage clinical trials. While strong data to back up these vaccines is still needed, the hope is that these next-generation vaccines could better prevent people from getting sick and spreading infection by blocking the virus at the point of entry in the nose and throat where it first gains a foothold.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.The World Health Organization (WHO) recently warned about the limited pipeline of new antibiotics for drug-resistant bacteria in a report based on a review published by WHO in 2022. The report found that only 12 new antibiotics entered the market between 2017 and 2021. Additionally, the report found that although 27 experimental antibiotics for critical bacterial infections are in clinical development, only 6 of those are considered different enough from existing antibiotics to potentially be used against drug-resistant pathogens without concern. Without a steady stream of novel antibiotics entering the pipeline and market, bacterial infections will become increasingly dangerous as bacteria continues to develop resistance to existing drugs.A new study from researchers at HDT Bio found that a new type of RNA vaccine against HIV and the Zika virus generated strong antibody responses in pregnant rabbits and their offspring. More studies will be necessary to confirm that vaccinating the mother alone is enough to protect against infection in the offspring, as well as to optimize vaccination timing and to see if the results can translate to humans. If successful, the vaccine could be an important tool in preventing mother-to-child transmission of these viruses and reducing the disease burden in newborns.A new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, supported by the US National Institutes of Health, found that HIV can persist in myeloid cells, a subset of white blood cells, in people who have been virally suppressed for years through antiretroviral therapy. The researchers emphasized that these findings challenge the long-held idea that these cells are short-lived, proving instead that these cells may contribute to an HIV reservoir and could be an important target in the development of a cure. Larger studies with more diverse participant pools will be needed to identify the proportion of people who show latent HIV in myeloid cells, as well as the mechanisms that replenish this reservoir over time.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced efforts to fast-track the testing of vaccines and therapeutics for Marburg following the recent outbreaks in Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea. Those trials should get underway soon, said WHO officials, as four or five of the 28 potential candidates already have doses ready. In the meantime, contact tracing, isolation, and supportive care are being used to prevent transmission in the countries. A lack of laboratory capacity in Equatorial Guinea has so far prevented the timely identification of cases, but the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is working to provide technical support, as well as build infrastructure and capacity to improve testing, which will be important in upcoming trials.Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned about the recent, rapid spread of the drug-resistant fungus Candida auris, or C. auris, in health care facilities and highlighted the serious risk the fungus poses to immunocompromised individuals. C. auris is resistant to typical antifungal treatments, and developing a vaccine for the fungus would likely take many years. There are currently no approved vaccines for any form of fungal infections. One vaccine candidate, being developed with support from the US National Institutes of Health, is designed to be cross-protective against several fungal pathogens, potentially including C. auris, although a phase 1 clinical trial is over a year away.Executives at three of the world’s leading flu vaccine manufacturers—GSK, Moderna, and CSL Sequiris— have said that they are preparing the capacity to develop hundreds of millions of avian flu shots within months if a new strain of avian flu jumps to humans. The companies are already or will soon begin testing sample human vaccines that match the subtype currently circulating among birds and mammals. Sanofi has also expressed its readiness to begin production, alongside its stock of existing H5N1 vaccines. However, there is concern about how to ensure equitable global access to such vaccines in the case of an outbreak, given a substantial portion of doses are already reserved for wealthy countries through preexisting preparedness contracts.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.A research team from Johnson & Johnson has refined and tested a new dengue treatment with promising results in animal studies. The treatment was tested for prevention and treatment in mice and for prevention in monkeys. No treatment exists for dengue, which has four different strains, and the two available vaccines for the disease have not yet been approved universally, highlighting the great potential of this new treatment in reducing disease burden. Further research is needed to find out whether the treatment could produce vulnerability to more serious reinfection and to test the compound in humans.Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the use of bednets treated with new insecticides in areas where there is mosquito resistance to pyrethroid, which has historically been used to treat bednets. WHO now recommends combining pyrethroid with an additional chemical—either the insect growth regulator pyriproxyfen or the insecticide chlorfenapyr. The recommendations are based on large-scale trials done by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in Tanzania and Benin. Researchers say the rollout of the new bednets could happen as early as the next few months and should take place in concert with the development of a comprehensive long-term plan to manage and prevent future resistance.Mobile vaccine production units, made by German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, recently arrived in Rwanda as part of a larger initiative to boost mRNA vaccine manufacturing on the African continent. The facility, which will hopefully start producing doses in around a year, will be able to manufacture up to 100 million mRNA vaccines a year for African Union countries, as well as potentially innovate treatments for diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, which are among the leading causes of death on the continent. There are further deliveries of these mobile production units planned for South Africa and Senegal.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.PANTHER, a newly launched pan-African platform for emergency research and preparedness, aims to address the lack of clinical trials carried out on the continent, despite it facing a disproportionate amount of the global disease burden. The researchers behind the initiative see the platform as a way to ensure essential data is captured in clinical trials during active outbreaks of existing or newly emerging diseases, especially following the recent Marburg and Sudan ebolavirus outbreaks. PANTHER hopes to prepare around 80 percent of the groundwork for trials before an outbreak by targeting at-risk spots, creating a network of researchers and health care providers, and proactively engaging funders so that when an outbreak is identified, this foundation can be quickly leveraged to adapt trials to local contexts and specific disease characteristics.Last week, researchers announced promising results from a phase 1 clinical trial, supported by the US National Institutes of Health, looking at a temperature-stable tuberculosis (TB) vaccine that can be freeze-dried and safely stored at higher temperatures for months. The shot, given to 45 healthy adults in the study, was found safe, well-tolerated, and elicited measurable responses in the body. If further testing of the vaccine proves successful, the shot could be a clear alternative to the bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine—the only licensed vaccine for TB, which is more sensitive and cannot be frozen— and break down barriers to vaccine distribution in low-income and low-resource settings around the world.A new paper found that more than 10 percent of people in rural Myanmar have been exposed to a diverse range of sarbecoviruses, a group of coronaviruses that includes Sars and Sars-Cov-2. Researchers also emphasized that the paper confirmed the risk of direct spillover from bats, especially in remote, rural areas. While there were no signs of human-to-human transmission of these viruses, the findings highlight the ongoing occurrence of spillovers and the need for surveillance of both disease outbreaks and rural areas with high wildlife-human interface, as well as ensuring strong biosecurity laboratory measures are in place.