Setting Bigger Targets For Next-Gen Vaccines

New vaccine platform technologies could dramatically shorten the period from research to development, clinical trials, and vaccination. Reimagining R&D approaches in vaccine design and vaccine immunology may hold the key to significantly elevate the health impact of vaccines.

- Shivani Thakar

Experts worldwide are adopting novel research approaches in the molecular design of vaccines, and vaccine technology platforms. India is seeing increasing interdisciplinary research, and a rise in cutting-edge technological interventions in fundamental and translational research. The time is ripe for boosting out-of-the-box R&D approaches in vaccinology. Let's explore further.

The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the 27 institutes and centres that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the US, referred to next-generation vaccines as those with enhanced breadth of protection to variants, improved durability, and enhanced ability to block infection/transmission relative to currently approved vaccines. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global partnership working to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic, describes vaccine technology platforms as technologies that are essential for rapid responses to emerging viral threats.

Essentially, vaccine platform technologies are systems that use the same basic components as a backbone but can be adapted for use against different pathogens by inserting new genetic or protein sequences. Rational vaccine design, developed using suitable vaccine technology platforms, could thus present significant advantages in immunisation.

Creating such an unprecedented disease agnostic vaccine technology platform can empower the world to be ready for future pandemics. Studies have shown that next-generation vaccines can enable a higher spectrum of protection against multiple variants, increased durability, and minimal safety concerns due to side effects while increasing their immunogenicity.

Each vaccine's utility or efficiency is determined by its formulation, adjuvants, and mode of action.