LAWRENCE – In the global health community, they call it “the last mile.”
A vaccine’s journey from manufacturer to a child in the developing world takes it through a complex, refrigerated “cold chain” designed to preserve its medicinal
LAWRENCE – In the global health community, they call it “the last mile.”
A vaccine’s journey from manufacturer to a child in the developing world takes it through a complex, refrigerated “cold chain” designed to preserve its medicinal value during shipment and storage. To then reach remote villages, vaccines might have to travel through dense jungles, over hot deserts and across large bodies of water. This final leg of the journey, referred to as the “last mile,” can expose vaccines to harsh conditions that compromise their potency and efficacy.
These harrowing voyages pay off. Vaccines save an estimated 2.5 million lives each year, according to the World Health Organization. But there is more work to be done. One in five children worldwide is still missing routine vaccinations for preventable diseases, resulting in about 1.5 million deaths each year.
Researchers at the University of Kansas hope to change that as part of a global coalition collaborating to increase access to existing and new vaccines.
A KU team led by School of Pharmacy Distinguished Professor David Volkin is working hard to develop the next generation of these life-saving medicines aimed at protecting 100% of the world’s children. On the strength of three new research grants and a service contract totaling approximately $10 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Volkin and co-investigator Sangeeta Joshi recently launched the Vaccine Analytics & Formulation Center (VAFC).
Volkin and Joshi, director of the VAFC, are leading an experienced team now turning its attention toward advancing vaccine candidates for the developing world. VAFC scientific staff, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students are working on dozens of collaborative projects supported primarily by the Gates Foundation and its global partners, including nonprofit organizations, academics, biotech companies as well as developing countries vaccine manufacturers.
“We work collaboratively with researchers worldwide who are developing new vaccine candidates to ensure they remain stable and potent throughout the vaccine cold chain, as well as to enable their manufacture at low-cost to provide improved global access,” Volkin said.
The awarded service agreement allows KU to work collaboratively with vaccine development partners to address analytical and formulation challenges encountered with their new candidates as they move from the laboratory into clinical trials. The three most recent Gates Foundation grants provide directed funding to KU to evaluate:
- New, multi-dose formulations of HPV vaccines that remain potent during long-term storage, while allowing for low-cost administration using antimicrobial preservatives so that a single vial of vaccine can provide protection to many children. The study will also provide a roadmap for developing multi-dose formulations of other vaccines in the future.
- Various combination formulations of a vaccine candidate to prevent rotavirus, by addition to inactivated polio vaccine or to the currently used pentavalent vaccine (to protect against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, haemophilus influenzae and hepatitis B) – again providing a framework and expertise to generate other low-cost combination vaccines tailored for the developing world.
- Stable, low-cost formulations of antibodies that can potentially be delivered orally to protect against infectious diseases, a strategy known as passive immunization.
The life-saving benefits of KU’s work for the Gates Foundation will be compounded by the organization’s open access policy.
“I really like their commitment to publishing research results,” Joshi said. “The hope is that once our work is shared with the scientific community, other researchers and developing country vaccine manufacturers can build on our results to produce vaccines that meet the needs of specific countries and regions.”
The VAFC is also preparing the next generation of scientists with specialized expertise to help improve the lives of people who have the most urgent needs and the fewest champions.
“Training of students and postdoctoral scientists is a key role for us,