Vero cell technology for rapid development of inactivated whole virus vaccines for emerging viral diseases

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Rapid development and production of vaccines against emerging diseases requires well established, validated, robust technologies to allow industrial scale production and accelerated licensure of products.

Areas covered: A versatile Vero cell platform has been developed and utilized to deliver a wide range of candidate and licensed vaccines against emerging viral diseases. This platform builds on the 35 years’ experience and safety record with inactivated whole virus vaccines such as polio vaccine. The current platform has been optimized to include a novel double inactivation procedure in order to ensure a highly robust inactivation procedure for novel emerging viruses. The utility of this platform in rapidly developing inactivated whole virus vaccines against pandemic (-like) influenza viruses and other emerging viruses such as West Nile, Chikungunya, Ross River and SARS is reviewed. The potential of the platform for development of vaccines against other emerging viruses such as Zika virus is described.

Expert commentary: Use of this platform can substantially accelerate process development and facilitate licensure because of the substantial existing data set available for the cell matrix. However, programs to provide vaccines against emerging diseases must allow alternative clinical development paths to licensure, without the requirement to carry out large scale field efficacy studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Vero cell
• emerging viruses
• inactivated whole virus vaccine
• rapid development

Declaration of interest

SJ Terpening, D Snow and RR Cobb are employees of Nanotherapeutics, a manufacturer of human vaccines and have equity interest in the company. PN Barrett and O Kistner are consultants to Nanotherapeutics and holds patents on various vaccines derived from the Vero cell platform. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Disclaimer

The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by Federal (United States Government) funds from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (contract number HHS0100200600013C).