Model for product development of vaccines against neglected tropical diseases: a vaccine against human hookworm

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the advances in product development and technology transfer of the vaccine against human hookworm, with particular emphasis on the lessons learned and the challenges of developing a vaccine in the nonprofit sector. The comprehensive approach to vaccine development established by the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative (HHVI) identifies key operational and technical aspects that are essential for a successful partnership with a developing country vaccine manufacturer. This article also highlights the importance of a global access roadmap to guide the vaccine development program. The advancement of new products for the control of neglected tropical diseases portends great challenges for global access, including aspects related to vaccine design, product development and manufacture, vaccine introduction and distribution, financing, knowledge dissemination and intellectual property management. With only three vaccines for neglected tropical diseases in clinical trials – hookworm, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis – we are at the nascent stages of developing vaccines for neglected populations. Product development public–private partnerships, such as the HHVI, continue to show great promise on this front and will eventually provide significant control tools for achieving millennium development goals related to poverty reduction, as well as child and maternal health.

Keywords::

• hookworm
• Necator americanus
• neglected tropical diseases
• product development
• public–private partnerships
• recombinant vaccines
• technology transfer
• vaccine manufacture

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr Peter J Hotez for his critical review of this manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

These studies were supported by the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 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.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.