A lack of funding and political will is hampering efforts to develop the next generation of vaccines that could protect millions of people from emerging new pathogens, experts have warned.
The next wave of vaccines aims to improve upon the Covid-19 shots released in late 2020 by offering longer-lasting or broader protection against a variety of variants and potentially other coronaviruses. The focus is on alternative products such as nasal sprays, inhalers and tablets, for ease of administration, manufacture or distribution.
But the sense of urgency of politicians and policymakers that drove the rapid development of the first Covid-19 vaccines is not being replicated. Critics blame a mix of public apathy, disputes over funding and the politicization of the response to the pandemic.
US President Joe Biden’s declaration last month that the “pandemic is over” wiped more than $10 billion off the value of Covid-19 vaccine makers, undermining the chances of breakthroughs at a time in which low absorption of booster shots and decreased immunity are increasing infection. rates
“Covid politics really affects research from the availability of funding to access to vaccines [for research purposes] and the sentiment of the general public,” said Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. “If you hear enough times that Covid is over, no one will want to pursue next-generation vaccines.”
Anthony Fauci warned that not approving new funding to fight Covid-19 could delay the development of several promising vaccine candidates © Greg Nash/Bloomberg
A Yale team led by Iwasaki is developing a Covid-19 booster that is applied directly to the nose. Initial studies in mice produced encouraging results. But the huge cost of conducting clinical trials and regulatory hurdles are holding back progress on these projects, according to Iwasaki, who is calling for government intervention to break the logjam.
In the US, it appears to be a distant prospect. In early October, Congress blocked a request by the Biden administration for an additional $22.4 billion to fight Covid-19. Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has warned that failure to approve new funding could delay the development of several promising vaccine candidates, which would otherwise be ready for large clinical trials within a year .
“If you really want to get into larger clinical trials of candidates, when you partner with industry . . . I can’t do that unless I get resources from Congress,” he said.
Richard Hatchett, executive director of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said his organization had earmarked about $200 million to support vaccine research for broader protection against a range of coronaviruses, while the National Institutes of Health of the United States had allocated 36.3 million dollars.
However, he said it was “very surprising and disappointing” that “there is not a more concerted global effort to support this work. We are not seeing investment on a similar scale from the UK, the [European Commission]Japan and others”.
While it was “undeniable that most countries have moved to a different phase of their coexistence with the virus”, Hackett added that “there is nothing to say that Sars-Cov-2, which has already shown its enormous evolutionary potential on multiple occasions, it cannot We will not mutate any more to become more virulent or resistant to the vaccines we have”.
Some countries, including Japan and the EU, have created agencies to strengthen their ability to anticipate and respond to future threats, but Hatchett said more urgent action was needed to develop advanced vaccines.
Dame Kate Bingham, who led the UK’s vaccine taskforce for 7 months, says the UKHSA “seems to have no power or money or responsibility to engage with innovators” © Charlie Bibby/FT
The commission said Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme, had set aside funding of up to €40m in 2022 to develop next-generation vaccines; The research proposals were currently “under evaluation,” he said, without elaborating. The previous Horizon 2020 program also provides 100 million euros to CEPI to support work on vaccines against Covid-19. Some of that money may go toward developing a broadly protective coronavirus vaccine candidate as part of the coalition’s $200 million program.
The UK has sought to position itself at the forefront of vaccine development. In June, the government struck a deal with Massachusetts-based Moderna to build a UK research and manufacturing hub. A research facility opened by the Health Safety Agency in February at Porton Down in Wiltshire has already been “crucial for testing the effectiveness” of new vaccines that attack two or more strains of coronavirus, Dr Bassam said Hallis, its deputy director of research and evaluation. .
However, officials key to the initial pandemic vaccine response suggested that the political leadership and focus that characterized the first phase may have dissipated. Dame Kate Bingham, who led the UK’s Vaccine Task Force (VTF) for seven months since its formation in May 2020, was appointed directly by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“The sense of urgency and fear in 2020 was completely different. The fact that they were willing to bring in an outside group, and allow me to hire a team . . . is quite different from what the government has typically done,” he said. Bingham.
Dr. Eric Topol says the Biden administration had not confronted Republicans over their failure to approve new funding © Kirsty O’Connor/PA
The UK business department has handed over the vaccine development portfolio to the UKHSA, with former VTF executive Philippa Harvey heading up the vaccines unit. Bingham suggested that the agency “doesn’t seem to have any power or money or responsibility to engage with innovators.” She and her team had been able to “go to academics or companies and say, ‘we’d like to work with you and we have the budget to do it,'” she added.
The UKHSA said it will continue to “work closely with vaccine developers, experts and academics” on early detection and response initiatives.
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Back in the United States, Eric Topol, founder of the Scripps Research Translation Institute, said the Biden administration had not confronted Republicans for not approving new funding.
He added that on some measures the US had been overtaken by India and China, which had approved nasal and oral vaccines. India’s Bharat Biotech said this month it had received approval for emergency use of its two-dose nasal vaccine for people 18 and older.
“You have to go all the way to take control of the pandemic, get ahead of it and contain the virus,” Topol said. “This is not being done.”