Kat Kelley

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. Kathy Neuzil, director of Vaccine Access and Delivery at PATH, reflects on the lessons learned from Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) in light of the achievement of its final milestone: World Health Organization prequalification of an infant version of the meningitis A MenAfriVac® vaccine. MenAfriVac® was approved for people aged 1 to 29 years in 2010, and has since been used to effectively protect 215 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Neuzil attributes MVP’s success to the tenacity of its team and the inclusion of country partners at every stage from product development to distribution. A new type of antibiotic may be the key to treating drug-resistant infections, according to a study published in Nature last week. The antibiotic, teixobactin, was extracted from dirt, and fights infections by targeting the fatty molecules that bacteria use to build their cell walls. While most antibiotics target the bacteria’s DNA, which can be easily mutated, the study’s lead researcher, Kim Lewis, believes it would take at least 30 years for the fatty molecules to mutate and thus develop resistance to teixobactin. The antibiotic has been successfully tested on mice with no side effects, and could be available for use in humans in five to six years. Johnson & Johnson has started human trials of an experimental Ebola vaccine in the United Kingdom, and hopes to expand testing to approximately 2,000 people by mid-February. Johnson & Johnson has produced over 400,000 courses of the vaccine and has invested significantly in the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic to develop a booster shot to enhance the efficacy of the vaccine and to promote long-term protection against Ebola. Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), sat down with Ryan Hohman of Friends of Cancer Research last week to discuss hot topics in FDA drug policy. Hamburg affirmed the FDA’s commitment to expediting research and development of new treatments, stating that in this “critical time for biomedical research and innovation” the FDA has a role to play in “translating all of the exciting new discoveries and opportunities and science into real world products that matter for people.”

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. The Independent examined what’s known about the effectiveness of an experimental Ebola treatment involving blood transfusions from survivors of the virus to current patients. The treatment—known as passive immunotherapy—was first tested by doctors in 1995 during an outbreak in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Of the eight patients who received blood transfusions, only one died, while the rest recovered completely, a 12.5 percent mortality rate during an epidemic with an 80 percent mortality rate. While some researchers argue these results make a case for wider use of passive immunotherapy, others note that very little is known about the efficacy and safety of the treatment, particularly in the current epidemic. The race to develop an Ebola vaccine is gaining momentum. The results from the first African trials of an Ebola vaccine—which ended in 2010—were published last week. The US National Institutes of Health had used knowledge gained from these trials to develop a more potent vaccine candidate, which recently completed Phase 1 trials and will begin Phase 2 trials in West Africa early this year. Another vaccine candidate, developed by NewLinks Genetics Corp and Merck & Co., is undergoing trials in Geneva and has been granted US$30 million from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for further testing. Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, highlights some of the advancements in HIV prevention research that will be forthcoming this year. In the first quarter of the year, results from the FACTS001 study—which is looking at the effectiveness of tenofovir antiviral gel in preventing HIV transmission before and after sex—will be announced. Results from two other microbicides trials are also expected to be released in late 2015 or early 2016. This year, an AIDS vaccine trial will begin in South Africa which will follow up on 2009 vaccine trial in Thailand which demonstrated some level of protection against HIV. It was a strong year from drug approvals at the US Food and Drug Administration. The agency approved 41 new drugs in 2014, a 52 percent increase from the 27 approved in 2013, and the highest count since 1996. Approximately 40 percent of the new medicines approved were for rare diseases, which highlights the industry’s focus on this research area for which the competition is limited and the cost per patient is high. Kat Kelley is GHTC's Senior Program Assistant.