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Research Roundup: A combo flu-COVID vaccine, dengue research with AI, and genetically modified mosquitoes

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In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week.

April 25, 2022 by Anna Kovacevich

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.

A combo flu and COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax elicits a strong immune response similar to stand-alone flu and COVID-19 shots, according to initial results of a phase 1/2 trial announced last week. The trial, conducted among 642 older adults between 50 to 70 years old in Australia, sought to identify an optimal dose of the vaccine using a modeling-based approach. The shot generated a similar immune response to both a stand-alone influenza vaccine as well as a stand-alone COVID-19 shot, and the modeling showed the combined formulation could reduce the total antigen amount by up to 50 percent, which could boost production and delivery. Novavax is launching a phase 3 study to continue evaluating the combination vaccine.

BenevolentAI and the Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative (DNDi) have launched a joint research project to combat dengue, for which there is currently no effective treatment. The collaboration will use an AI-enhanced approach—using a data foundation developed from various independent data sources—to identify the underlying mechanisms involved in dengue infection and provide a host of potential biological targets and drug repurposing candidates that could help stop progression to severe dengue. Once the most promising drug candidates are identified, they will be evaluated in clinical trials in partnership with dengue-endemic countries. Applying cutting-edge AI technology to help neglected patients opens an exciting opportunity to rapidly identify and evaluate promising drug candidates, according to DNDi.

The first open-air study of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the United States is now complete and shows promising results, according to biotechnology firm Oxitec, which is running the experiment. The experiment, launched in April 2021, involved releasing nearly 5 million engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the Florida Keys over the course of seven months. Oxitec’s engineered male mosquitoes carry a gene that is lethal to female offspring, causing the population to dwindle as each generation mates. While the experiment showed females did die as intended due to the gene, larger tests are still needed to determine whether the insects can achieve the ultimate goal of suppressing a wild population of potentially virus-carrying mosquitoes, and controlled clinical trials will be required to assess whether the method reduces transmission of dengue or other viruses carried by A. aegypti.

Categories: COVID-19, Medicines, Research Roundup, Vaccines

About the author

Anna KovacevichGHTC

Anna Kovacevich is a senior program assistant at GHTC who supports GHTC's communications and member engagement activities.

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Research Roundup: Drug resistance threatens newborns, WHO funding reform, and global testing declines

Written by Anna Kovacevich / GHTC
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Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. More newborn babies with sepsis are dying because their infections are not responding to the usual antibiotics, according to the largest global study on the subject to date. The study, sponsored by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP), which enrolled 3,200 newborns diagnosed with sepsis in 11 countries, found that 11 percent of newborns died over the course of the study and that 15 percent were prescribed last-line antibiotics due to the high degree of resistance to standard recommended antibiotics in treatment units. Antibiotic resistance is now one of the major threats to newborn health globally, according to researchers, with virtually no studies underway to develop novel antibiotic treatments for babies with sepsis caused by multidrug-resistant infections. GARDP is now designing an interventional trial to identify better treatment regimens to combat rising resistance.World Health Organization (WHO) member states reached a preliminary agreement this week to gradually increase mandatory fees, or “assessed contributions,” to cover 50 percent of the organization’s core budget needs. WHO currently relies heavily on voluntary contributions and private donors, which can leave its financing inflexible and unpredictable. The new funding reforms would be contingent upon certain conditions, such as increased transparency, with the funding linked to a member state review of WHO progress on promised internal reforms. The agreement will still need to be formally approved by governments at the World Health Assembly in May to take effect.COVID-19 diagnostic testing has fallen by 70–90 percent around the world, making it increasingly difficult to monitor the pandemic’s evolution, treat patients, and track variants, according to FIND, a co-convener of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator diagnostics pillar. While reported cases and deaths are declining globally, changes in testing strategies and reductions in the number of tests being used globally means there is little confidence in actual case trends. The testing decline also undermines the ability to treat patients with new therapeutics—like Pfizer’s antiviral Paxlovid, which requires early diagnosis to get the most benefit—and has led to a decrease in the number of genomic sequences submitted to global databases, which helps track emerging variants.
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April 21, 2022

Quiz: Is there a vaccine for that?

Written by Anna Kovacevich / GHTC
Read time: 5 minutes
The record-breaking speed at which COVID-19 vaccines were developed was a triumph of modern science. Yet the world is still without preventative vaccines to combat many diseases that enact a heavy toll on communities around the world—underscoring the need for continued investments in vaccine research and development.In recognition of World Immunization Week, GHTC is testing readers’ knowledge of vaccines for some of the world’s leading global health challenges. For each disease listed below, answer yes or no as to whether an approved vaccine exists.