Lyme disease is caused by the Borrelia species of tick across the USA, Europe and Asia. No human vaccine for Lyme disease currently exists – although the history of the Lyme disease vaccine LYMERix is nicely detailed here.

This novel Lyme disease vaccine contained epitopes from Borrelia species outer surface protein A (OspA) serotypes. Investigators examined the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in 300 trial participants, assigning half the participants to receive the adjuvanted vaccines and half to receive the non-adjuvanted vaccines. All doses and formulations induced substantial mean IgG antibody titres after the first three vaccinations and booster immunisations.

What do you think? You can leave a comment in the box below, or on LinkedIn group discussion.

If you want to know more about strategy and innovation in vaccines, you might be interested in attending theWorld Vaccine Congress Asia 2013, 17-20 June 2013, Singapore. Want more from Vaccine Nation? Sign up to our newsletter for free here.

In response to our recent list of Top 50 Most Influential People in Vaccines, the Impatient Optimists website of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation published their own list of ‘unsung vaccine heroes’. After reading our list, the authors say that “So many other women and men in many countries came immediately to mind for us ” – and so they have penned this list of 34 influential “unsung vaccine heroes”. See what you think!

Research published this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases highlighted the importance of monitoring the media to analyse public concerns about vaccines. The researchers applied a surveillance system to gather 10380 vaccine-related media reports from 144 countries over the course of a year. The reports were analysed for overall positive or negative sentiment towards vaccines. The researchers found that:

• 69% contained positive or neutral content
• 31% contained negative content
• Of the negative reports:
  • 24% were associated with impacts on vaccine programmes and disease outbreaks
  • 21% with beliefs, awareness, and perceptions
  • 16% with vaccine safety
  • 16% with vaccine delivery programmes.

The researchers say that real-time monitoring and analysis of vaccine concerns over time and location could help immunisation programmes address specific public concerns. The study comes not long after a team of researchers tracked 318,379 pro- and anti-vaccine messages on the social networking website Twitter to show that anti-vaccination statements were socially contagious while pro-vaccination statements were not.

Read the journal article here  >

Are you concerned by these results? Do you think that having an understanding of how positive and negative views on vaccination can spread is important?

You can join our discussion on LinkedIn or leave a comment below, I’d love to hear what you think.

If you want to know more about strategy and innovation in vaccines, you might be interested in attending the World Vaccine Congress Asia 2013, 17-20 June 2013, Singapore. Want more from Vaccine Nation? Sign up to our newsletter for free here.

The Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Bharat Biotech have announced the development of a rotavirus vaccine that will be sold at $1 per dose, once approved. Results from a Phase III clinical trial showed that the ROTAVAC® vaccine decreased the incidence of severe rotavirus diarrhoea by 56% during the first year of life, and the protection conferred by the vaccine also continued into the second year of life. The clinical trial enrolled 6,799 infants across three sites in India.

“This is an important scientific breakthrough against rotavirus infections, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea, responsible for approximately 100,000 deaths of small children in India each year,” said DBT Secretary Dr K. VijayRaghavan. “The clinical results indicate that the vaccine, if licensed, could save the lives of thousands of children each year in India.”

ROTAVAC® is an oral vaccine and is administered to infants in a three-dose course at the ages of 6, 10, and 14 weeks. At a price of US$1 (54 rupees; £0.65) per dose, ROTAVAC® will be more affordable than other rotavirus vaccines already on the market, if it is licensed by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). Last year, the GAVI Alliance negotiated a bulk supply of rotavirus vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck at $2.50 per dose (and GSK’s Rotarix and Merck’s RotaTeq turned out to be more cost-effective than previously thought).

“With its low price and strong efficacy, ROTAVAC® has the potential to significantly reduce the incidence of severe diarrhoea due to rotavirus among children in India,” said Dr M.K. Bhan, Advisor to the Indian Academy of Pediatrics and former DBT Secretary.

The vaccine’s development resulted from a unique partnership between Indian and international researchers, with partners including DBT, Bharat Biotech, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Stanford University School of Medicine, and PATH.

“This public-private partnership is an exemplary model of how to develop affordable technologies that save lives,” said Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (See video of Kim Bush, Director of Life Sciences Partnerships, Global Health Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discuss ‘Investing in Global Health’).

What do you think? You can leave a comment in the box below, or on LinkedIn group discussion.

If you want to know more about strategy and innovation in vaccines, you might be interested in attending theWorld Vaccine Congress Asia 2013, 17-20 June 2013, Singapore. Want more from Vaccine Nation? Sign up to our newsletter for free here.

Kim Bush, Director of Life Sciences Partnerships, Global Health Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives his presentation on ‘Investing in global health’.

The World Vaccine Congress & Expo is now in its 13th year and is the biggest and most comprehensive event for the industry. Covering everything from the latest R&D to manufacturing to the corporate development strategies you’ll be sure to find answers to all your questions.

A novel anti-cocaine vaccine has been successfully tested in primates, bringing researchers closer to launching clinical trials with the vaccine in humans. The research was lead by Dr Ronald Crystal at Weill Cornell Medical College, and was published online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

The vaccine, dAd5GNE, works by preventing cocaine from reaching the central nervous system. It is based on the cocaine analogue GNE linked to the capsid proteins of a serotype 5 adenovirus, evoking the production of anti-cocaine antibodies that sequester the cocaine in the blood.

“The vaccine eats up the cocaine in the blood like a little Pac-man before it can reach the brain,” said the study’s lead investigator, Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, chairman of the Department of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

The team assessed the efficacy of dAd5GNE by using positron emission tomography (PET) and a radiotracer to measure cocaine occupancy of dopamine transporters in primates. Research has shown that to get a high from the drug, at least 47% of the dopamine transporter had to be occupied by cocaine. The researchers found, in vaccinated primates, that cocaine occupancy of the dopamine receptor was reduced to levels of less than 20% – well below the ‘drug high’ threshold.

By blocking the drug high associated with cocaine, this could help addicts break their addiction. “Even if a person who receives the anti-cocaine vaccine falls off the wagon, cocaine will have no effect.” Dr Crystal says there are an estimated 1.4 million cocaine users in the US, and the vaccine might soon reach those who are committed to breaking the habit, as human testing of the anti-cocaine vaccine could begin within a year.

Dr Crystal recently spoke about his work with dAd5GNE anti-cocaine vaccine, and also an anti-nicotine vaccines, at the World Vaccine Congress & Expo USA 2013. Read more here > Lifestyle Addiction and Allergy Vaccines – cocaine, smoking, alcohol and allergies >

What do you think? You can leave a comment in the box below, or on LinkedIn group discussion.

If you want to know more about strategy and innovation in vaccines, you might be interested in attending theWorld Vaccine Congress Asia 2013, 17-20 June 2013, Singapore. Want more from Vaccine Nation? Sign up to our newsletter for free here.

Dr Thomas P. Monath, Adjunct Professor at Harvard School of Public Health gives his presentation on ‘New vaccines needed for pathogens infecting animals and humans: One Health’.

The World Vaccine Congress & Expo is now in its 13th year and is the biggest and most comprehensive event for the industry. Covering everything from the latest R&D to manufacturing to the corporate development strategies you’ll be sure to find answers to all your questions.

George Adams, Vaccine Program Manager, Asia India Japan Market Manager at EMD Millipore gives his presentation on ‘Providing global access to vaccines is a team effort.’

The World Vaccine Congress & Expo is now in its 13th year and is the biggest and most comprehensive event for the industry. Covering everything from the latest R&D to manufacturing to the corporate development strategies you’ll be sure to find answers to all your questions.

Lois Privor Dumm, Director, Alliances & Information at the International Vaccine Access Center gives her presentation on ‘Disease prevention in low and middle income countries: The role of vaccines’.

The World Vaccine Congress & Expo is now in its 13th year and is the biggest and most comprehensive event for the industry. Covering everything from the latest R&D to manufacturing to the corporate development strategies you’ll be sure to find answers to all your questions.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) used text analytics software to analyse parental concerns about vaccines expressed on online discussion forums, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. The study, which ran for two months last year, allowed the company to learn what factors motivated parents to go ahead or delay vaccinating their children. The data collected was anonymized and contain no user identities.

What did they conclude? After the software arranged the themes of thousands of posts into topics like “safety” and “comfort”, and sentiments like “happiness”, the study found that parents often had a lack of “comfort” with the safety of vaccines, and were not convinced of the need to vaccinate their children against diseases like measles and mumps. Parents were also concerned about the correct timing for the shots, and found that “autism” was among the words most commonly associated with vaccinations.

Although neither the parents not the administrators of the websites were aware of the monitoring, the discussions all took place on publically-accessible discussion forums. “When you go into the public forums, that’s where this conversation is taking place,” said Dominic Hein, GSK. “And by listening to what our customers say to each other we can better understand their needs.” GSK have concluded that they need to arm physicians with better materials to educate parents about vaccine safety information.

Read more about this study at Wall Street Journal.

In a separate study that started in 2009, a team of researchers from Penn State University tracked the vaccine-related messages that Twitter users were exposed to, and then observed how those users expressed their own opinions about a new H1N1 influenza vaccine. Anti-vaccination statements appear to be socially contagious while pro-vaccination statements are not, according to a team of researchers who tracked 318,379 pro- and anti-vaccine messages on the social networking website. Read more: Negative vaccine sentiments are contagious on Twitter.

What do you think about pharmaceutical companies monitoring vaccine sentiments on public discussion boards? Is it a good idea? You can join our discussion on LinkedIn or leave a comment below, I’d love to hear what you think. Want more from Vaccine Nation? Sign up to our newsletter for free here.

If you want to know more about strategy and innovation in vaccines, you might be interested in attending the World Vaccine Congress Asia 2013, 17-20 June 2013, Singapore. Want more from Vaccine Nation? Sign up to our newsletter for free here.