Thread: Aids, flu other vaccines developed

(dpa) - Vaccines against pneumococcus and rotavirus - diseases that kill 1.5 million people each year - are now available in industrialised countries and should be available soon in the developing world, health experts said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the first vaccine against H5N1, or avian influenza, should be available for humans within a year, tests of a trial vaccine against HIV/Aids should be completed by 2009 and the world's first effective vaccine against malaria, that claims one million lives a year, may be ready for use by 2011.

These were some of the cheery conclusions from the seventh World Health Organisation Global Vaccine Research Forum that drew more than 200 vaccine experts from around the world to Bangkok between Sunday and Wednesday.

The annual forum of vaccine specialists from both the public and private sectors discussed new possibilities of spreading the use of "underutilized vaccines," such as newly-licensed vaccines against rotavirus, pneumococcus (which causes bacterial pneumonia) and human papillomavirus, progress in vaccines against recent pandemics such as avian influenza and long term plans for developing vaccines against mass killers malaria, HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and dengue fever.

"We can expect that in a year from now there would be a vaccine against H5N1 which can be used by humans," said Maria-Paule Kieny, director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research under the World Health Organization (WHO).

If the H5N1 should develop into a pandemic, "there would be an urgency mode and regulators would move quicker," and the vaccine could be available sooner, she noted.

Vaccines, the dull cousins of drugs in the health industry that provide immunity against diseases rather than cures, have been effective in driving former killer diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and measles to the brink of extinction.

Thanks to new technological breakthroughs and access to new funding, specifically from new philanthropic sources such as the Global Alliance for Vaccine Immunity (GAVI) and the Bill & Milinda Gates Foundation, there is hope that existing vaccines will be better used to undermine hepatitis B, typhoid, pneumococcus and rotavirus.

"This is new and incredible," said Kieny, who noted that while a new vaccine against pneumococcus will be made available in France for the first time this year, it is likely to be on the market in impoverished Gambia by 2007 to 2008, thanks to access to funding and dual pricing by pharmaceutical giants.

Previously, vaccines developed by pharmaceutical industries in the industrialized countries would take 15 to 20 years before they were made available at affordable prices in the developing world.

A newly licensed vaccine against human papillomavirus, for instance, costs 450 dollars a shot. Most of the vaccines purchased by the UN for mass immunization campaigns in the developing world cost pennies.

Another major development in the vaccine industry has been availablity of financing from philanthropic foundations into diseases that affect the third world but not the US or Europe.

One of the achievements of the global vaccine research forum in Bangkok was the launch of a Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap, a global strategy that hopes to develop a first-generation vaccine against the disease by 2015 and a malaria vaccine by 2025 with 80 per cent efficacy.

Much of the malaria vaccine research is being funded by the Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation.

"It's an enormous change in terms of access to resources," said Kieny of the availability of philanthropic funding. But she added that the dependency on private charity was a reflection of public failure.

"The fact is that we are very lucky to have philanthropists who want to finance global health rather than buy art pieces, but actually this is a public health problem that should prompt a public health response," said Kieny.
bangkok post