News

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) TB Vaccine Accelerator Council recently published a new report calling for action to ensure equitable access to future tuberculosis (TB) vaccines currently in the pipeline. While the only licensed vaccine for TB is 100 years old and has limited effectiveness in adolescents and adults, as of September, there are 16 candidate vaccines in clinical development, six of which are in Phase 3 trials. WHO estimates that a vaccine for adolescents and adults that is at least 50 percent effective could avert up to 76 million TB cases and 8.5 million deaths over 25 years. However, as the report claims, global demand could far exceed supply in the initial years after a vaccine is approved because there is no designated funding for such a rollout in low- and middle-income countries most affected by TB, which are already facing significant funding shortfalls. In anticipation of these potential bottlenecks and barriers to access, the report identifies six solutions to encourage countries with a high burden of TB, manufacturers, and other funders and stakeholders to start preparing now for the rollout to ensure future vaccines can reach people who need them faster. In a Phase 1 randomized controlled trial, an experimental intranasal vaccine against multiple H5N1 avian flu strains generated a broad immune response, demonstrating the potential of such a vaccine to play a major role in preparing for outbreaks of emerging viruses with evolving strains, as H5N1 continues its worrying spread. The University of Maryland research team tested the vaccine against a placebo in 40 adults between 18 and 45, finding that the vaccine was safe, well-tolerated, and stimulated immunity at various doses. One group received a vaccine dose combined with an adjuvant, an ingredient used to trigger a stronger immune response, and their immune systems were better able to neutralize infected cells for longer, suggesting that the use of an adjuvant could be a promising approach that might allow for lower doses, which could stretch limited vaccine supplies in the event of an outbreak. Last week, IAVI published new findings from the first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of its Lassa virus vaccine candidate, which show that one dose of the vaccine triggers robust and long-lasting immunity and is safe. There are no vaccines or treatments currently licensed against the dangerous illness, which causes thousands of deaths in endemic West Africa and has been designated as a priority pathogen with pandemic potential. The trial enrolled 114 volunteers in Liberia and the United States. The candidate, now undergoing a Phase 2a trial in West Africa, is currently the most advanced Lassa fever vaccine candidate in the pipeline and uses the same platform as Merck’s single-dose Ebolavirus vaccine, which is approved in more than a dozen countries. 

The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) welcomes the strong research and development (R&D) focus in South Africa’s draft health ministerial declaration, which recognizes the vital role of science and innovation in strengthening health systems, advancing equitable access to medical countermeasures, and supporting sustainable economic growth. However, much of the R&D language in the text lacks clear commitments, specific targets, or actionable measures needed to translate these ambitions into tangible outcomes.We commend the draft declaration’s explicit call to “foster scientific collaboration to accelerate the development of safe and effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics” and to “develop resilient and sustainable health R&D ecosystems.” The emphasis on building regional manufacturing capacity, reinforcing supply chains, and investing in a skilled health workforce reflects a welcome commitment to a more distributed and equitable innovation ecosystem capable of responding rapidly to future outbreaks. We also welcome the declaration’s endorsement of sustained domestic investment lines for R&D to promote self-reliant science ecosystems.We applaud the recognition that “international collaboration and efforts to accelerate end-to-end development of therapeutics” are vital to address persistent gaps across the R&D pipeline, including through partnerships between research institutions in low- and middle-income and high-income countries. Specifically, the draft’s focus on strengthening regional science hubs and building “transparent, inclusive, and responsive science advisory mechanisms” echo GHTC’s long-standing advocacy for collaborative and equitable R&D models that leverage regional expertise and ensure innovations are designed for—and accessible to—all populations.GHTC also notes South Africa’s elevation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in its health agenda. This inclusion in the ministerial text reflects a growing recognition of the threat of AMR and the need for novel health technologies to address it, marking an important step forward during South Africa’s presidency.While this robust language across the document reflects the progress our community has made in ensuring R&D is recognized as a key pillar of health progress, we are disappointed to see that G20 leaders failed to rally around a clear set of commitments or targets and failed to build on deliverables promised by South Africa’s original health agenda.For example, while advocates have praised South Africa’s efforts this year to mobilize a coalition for the development of therapeutics, the text lacks the operational details needed to establish the group. It also omits reference to South Africa’s proposed Commission on Science and Innovation for Health and Economic Growth, underscoring the gap between the ambitions that had been outlined and the tangible outcomes that were delivered through this year’s G20 process.The draft only briefly touches on the Coalition for Local and Regional Production, Innovation, and Equitable Access that emerged from Brazil’s G20 presidency last year. While this was an exciting R&D development to stem from the G20, momentum to carry it forward continues to stall.Finally, while the text underscores the importance of long-term investments in R&D and domestic resource mobilization, it falls short of offering concrete funding targets or commitments, highlighting a lack of political will among leaders to advance new investments.As the G20 finalizes the declaration, we call on health ministers to not only preserve the R&D language in the text but to strengthen it with concrete, actionable measures that advance innovation, ensuring that the G20 remains a forum where global health, particularly lifesaving R&D, remains a top priority.

A team of chemists from the University of Warwick and Monash University has identified a promising, potent new antibiotic that seems to be much more effective than existing drugs against deadly superbugs like MRSA and shows no signs of resistance so far, encouraging news as the global threat of antimicrobial resistance continues to grow and the pipeline of new antibiotics continues to fall short. The molecule had been overlooked for decades as an intermediate chemical in the natural process to produce another known antibiotic, methylenomycin A, which was discovered 50 years ago, and despite having been synthesized multiple times, the synthetic intermediates have seemingly not been tested before for antimicrobial activity. The new antibiotic is much more potent than methylenomycin A itself—100 times more active against a range of serious bacteria. It could not only be a powerful new tool against rising drug resistance, but this work could also pave the way for new approaches to antibiotic discovery. A team of researchers has developed an antivenom using antibodies from a llama and an alpaca that can neutralize venom from some of the world’s most venomous snakes. Snakebites are a neglected public health issue that kill around 20,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa yearly. Current antivenom treatments are usually specific to a single snake species, and it can be difficult to identify which of the many types of venomous snakes is behind a bite, making timely, effective treatment difficult to achieve. The researchers exposed an alpaca and a llama to venoms from 18 of the most dangerous snake species in sub-Saharan Africa, isolated the antibodies that the animals produced against the venom, and then combined some of those antibodies in a single cocktail. In mice, the treatment protected against toxins from 17 African snake species and reduced skin damage. Many scientists previously thought that developing a broad-spectrum antivenom would require too many antibodies to be practical because some venom can contain up to 100 toxins, but this study shows that a combination of just a handful of antibodies can neutralize the venom of many snake species, paving the way for the development of similar broad-spectrum antivenoms for other areas where snakebites are a common public health challenge. Last week, Cepheid announced that its Xpert MTB/XDR test for tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance has been prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO), enabling procurement through international agencies and greater access in areas with a high TB burden. The test is designed to detect resistance to multiple first- and second-line TB drugs from patient samples. It also delivers results quickly, within 90 minutes, allowing health care providers to make quicker, more reliable treatment decisions and have a better understanding of drug resistance, especially in regions with a high TB burden where timing and accuracy are critically important. 

A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies looking at the effectiveness of typhoid conjugate vaccines found that they are highly effective in preventing typhoid fever in countries where the infection is endemic, adding to the collection of real-world evidence supporting their use. Despite the high burden of typhoid fever—an infection caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi—in Africa and Asia, only ten countries to date have added the vaccines to their national immunization programs. There are three vaccines for preventing typhoid fever that are currently recommended and licensed by the World Health Organization. Last week, California-based True Diagnostics announced that it had received an award of upward of $11 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support the development of a blood-based rapid antigen test for Ebola and Marburg viruses. The test, if it proves effective, could help boost testing capacity and national preparedness for outbreaks of pathogens with pandemic potential like Ebola and Marburg viruses, which have caused worrying outbreaks in Africa in recent years. Specifically, the funding will support the further development, validation testing, and regulatory submissions of its VeriClear EbV MARV Rapid Antigen Test to detect and differentiate Ebola and Marburg viruses in fingerstick blood samples.   A research team presented new data at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin, Germany last week, showing that cancer patients who received COVID-19 mRNA vaccines within 100 days of starting immunotherapy drugs survived more often than non-vaccinated patients. These findings suggest that mRNA vaccines could help improve outcomes for cancer patients being treated with immunotherapies and even patients with treatment-resistant cancers. While these results are preliminary and need to be confirmed in an upcoming Phase 3 randomized clinical trial, scientists say they could revolutionize cancer care, perhaps even paving the way for a universal, off-the-shelf vaccine for cancer.