TBVI
Encyclopedia
TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) is a European-based foundation that facilitates the development of new tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 vaccine
Vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...

s. The goal is to protect future generations against tuberculosis.

TBVI supports an integrated network of more than 50 universities, institutes and industries. They develop more effective, safe vaccines that will be globally accessible and affordable. Research conducted by TBVI's mostly European-based network has resulted in several vaccine discoveries (see track record).

Vaccines to be developed

TBVI plans to develop two types of vaccines:
  1. Priming vaccines that could be given to newborns, which are also protective in latently infected persons and safe in persons with HIV.
  2. Boosting vaccines to be used in infants, adolescents or young adults, protecting both non-infected as well as latently infected persons from developing TB.


Furthermore, TBVI has a program to develop biomarkers (used to monitor the effectiveness of new vaccines) to increase performance and speed of vaccine development. Biomarkers can provide early insight into the likely effect of a vaccine in different populations and as such can be used as a selection tool before starting long and costly clinical trials. Biomarkers can be useful tools to monitor vaccine trials.

Why new vaccines

Currently there is only one vaccine against tuberculosis available worldwide: Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). This vaccine, used since 1921, can protect children from severe forms of tuberculosis. However, BCG has little to no efficacy in preventing pulmonary TB in (young) adults, the most common and most infectious form of tuberculosis. Moreover, there are serious safety concerns regarding the use of BCG in HIV infected newborns.

More effective, safe vaccines to improve or replace BCG are urgently needed as tuberculosis keeps taking its toll. TB causes 1.5 million deaths a year and the burden of the disease, affecting economies worldwide, is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Vaccines – generally accepted as and proven to be both a very efficient and cost-effective way of preventing infectious diseases – can make the difference.

Modeling studies show that without new vaccines TB can never be eliminated. New vaccines, together with more accurate diagnostics and more efficient drug therapies, would save tens of millions of lives. Vaccines will also be especially crucial in combating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), forms of TB that are expensive and extremely difficult or virtually impossible to treat.

History

On suggestion of the European Commission - in 2008 TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) was founded to collect additional funds from governments, non-governmental organizations, foundations, private industry and other private funders.

Track Record

The TBVAC project (2004–2009) – the European Union funded project TBVI managed and evolved from – resulted in:
  • 4 new vaccine candidates in preclinical and non clinical stages
  • 4 new vaccine candidates in clinical phase I to II (testing safety and immunogenicity)
  • 15 candidate biomarkers (used to monitor the effectiveness of new vaccines) with the potential to be used in monitoring of clinical trials
  • 3 adjuvant molecules (used to enhance the immunogenicity and therefore the efficacy of vaccines), 1 of which is in clinical phase I studies.


The most advanced vaccine candidate is currently being tested for efficacy in a Phase IIb study. If successfully tested in further clinical stages this vaccine could hopefully be licensed by 2017.

Funding and support

TBVI's activities are currently being funded by:
  • The European Union 7th framework programme
  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
  • The EDCTP (European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership
  • The following sponsors: GSK Biologicals
    GlaxoSmithKline
    GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...

    , Institut Merieux, FIT Biotech Ltd

Furthermore, TBVI has the support of the European Parliament

Council of Trustees

  • Mr. Bernard Petit, Chair, Honorary Director General European Commission, France
  • Prof. Barry R. Bloom, Professor and Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobsen Professor of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health
    Harvard School of Public Health
    The Harvard School of Public Health is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the...

    , Boston, United States
  • Mr. John Bowis
    John Bowis
    John Crocket Bowis OBE is a former Conservative MP and MEP.- Education :John Bowis was educated at Tonbridge School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics....

    , Former member of the European Parliament, former Minister of Health and Transport of the UK, London, Great Britain
  • Prof. Christian Bréchot, Vice President of Medical and Scientific Affairs, Institut Mérieux, Lyon, France
  • Mr. Philippe Busquin
    Philippe Busquin
    Philippe Busquin is a Belgian politician. He was Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009 for the French Community of Belgium with the Parti Socialiste, part of the Socialist Group and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. Busquin was the chairman...

    , Former member European Commission, former Belgian Minister Education, resp. Interior and Social Affairs, founding commissioner EDCTP, former Member European Parliament, Seneffe, Belgium
  • Dr. Dorette Corbey
    Dorette Corbey
    Dorette Corbey is a Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Partij van de Arbeid , which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.She is also a substitute...

    , Director of Advisory Council for Science and Technology Policy (AWT), former member of European Parliament, Haarlem, The Netherlands
  • Dr. Jan Gheuens, Senior Program Officer Tuberculosis, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
    Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
    The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family"...

    , Seattle, United States
  • Mr. Charles Goerens
    Charles Goerens
    Charles Goerens is a politician from Luxembourg.He studied agricultural science before he was first elected to the northern district constituency as a member of the Democratic Party in 1979...

    , Member of European Parliament, Luxembourg
  • Prof. Michel D. Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Prof. Charles Mgone, Executive Director EDCTP (European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership), The Hague, The Netherlands
  • Prof. Peter Piot
    Peter Piot
    Baron Peter Piot, MD, PhD FRCP is a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations, former Executive Director of the UN specialized agency UNAIDS, and a professor at Imperial College London...

    , Director of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, former Director Institute for Global Health Imperial College London, former Executive Director of UNAIDS, London, Great Britain
  • Dr. Kalevi Reijonen, President and CEO, FIT Biotech, Tampere, Finland
  • Prof. Jorge Soares, Director of Health and Human Development Department, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Prof. Hans Wigzell, Professor and Deputy Chairman, Karolinska Institute, former President of Karolinksa Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK