The Vaccine Formulation Laboratory: a platform for access to adjuvants

Adjuvants are increasingly used by the vaccine research and development community, particularly for their ability to enhance immune responses and for their dose-sparing properties. However, they are not readily available to the majority of public sector vaccine research groups, and even those with access to suitable adjuvants may still fail in the development of their vaccines because of lack of knowledge on how to correctly formulate the adjuvants. This shortcoming led the World Health Organization to advocate for the establishment of the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The primary mission of the laboratory is to transfer adjuvants and formulation technology free of intellectual property rights to academic institutions, small biotechnology companies and developing countries vaccine manufacturers. In this context, the transfer of an oil-in-water emulsion to Bio Farma, an Indonesian vaccine manufacturer, was initiated to increase domestic pandemic influenza vaccine production capacity as part of the national pandemic influenza preparedness plan.     

An international technology platform for influenza vaccines

Since 2008, the World Health Organization has provided seed grants to 11 manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries to establish or improve their pandemic influenza vaccine production capacity. To facilitate this ambitious project, an influenza vaccine technology platform (or "hub") was established at the Netherlands Vaccine Institute for training and technology transfer to developing countries. During its first two years of operation, a robust and transferable monovalent pilot process for egg-based inactivated whole virus influenza A vaccine production was established under international Good Manufacturing Practice standards, as well as in-process and release assays. A course curriculum was designed, including a two-volume practical handbook on production and quality control. Four generic hands-on training courses were successfully realized for over 40 employees from 15 developing country manufacturers. Planned extensions to the curriculum include cell-culture based technology for viral vaccine production, split virion influenza production, and generic adjuvant formulation. We conclude that technology transfer through the hub model works well, significantly builds vaccine manufacturing capacity in developing countries, and thereby increases global and equitable access to vaccines of high public health relevance.     

A decade of adaptation: Regulatory contributions of the World Health Organization to the Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines (2006–2016)

The Global Action Plan (GAP) for Influenza Vaccines is a decade-long initiative that brings together a diverse range of stakeholders to work towards reducing anticipated global shortage of influenza vaccines and ensuring more equitable access to vaccines during the next influenza pandemic. Since its inception in 2006, significant progress has been made towards all the main objectives of GAP, namely: (1) an increase in seasonal vaccine use, (2) an increase in vaccine production, and (3) progress in research and development of more effective vaccines. The Technology Transfer Initiative (TTI), conceived and managed by WHO under the GAP, contributed to increasing regional influenza vaccine production capacity. This was achieved by facilitating technology transfer in 14 low- and middle-income countries, through grants to manufacturers to establish or strengthen influenza vaccine production capacity and support to their national regulatory authorities. Five of the countries subsequently licensed locally produced influenza vaccines; two pandemic and three seasonal vaccines received WHO prequalification. The success of GAP can be largely attributed to the regulatory support provided by WHO to both manufacturers and regulators. This support had two components: (1) direct regulatory support to GAP/TTI, and (2) support to GAP-related WHO programmes, such as the Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Deployment Initiative in 2010 and the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework since 2013, especially in non-vaccine-producing countries. Temporary adaptation of the assessment process for influenza vaccines in the WHO Vaccine Prequalification Programme to the A(H1N1) pandemic situation in 2009 was instrumental to the success of the WHO Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Deployment Initiative in its attempt to meet the demand for pandemic vaccines in countries that received donated vaccines.     

WHO initiative to increase global and equitable access to influenza vaccine in the event of a pandemic: supporting developing country production capacity through technology transfer

Should a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, such as the H5N1 virus type currently circulating in birds, become transmissible among humans, an effective vaccine, rapidly available in vast quantities, would be the best tool to prevent high case-fatalities and the breakdown of health and social services. The number of vaccine doses that could be produced on demand has risen sharply over the last few years; however, it is still alarmingly short of the 13 billion doses that would be needed if two doses were required to protect fully the world's population. Most developing countries would be last in the queue to benefit from a pandemic vaccine. The World Health Organization, together with governments, the pharmaceutical industry and other stakeholders, has been implementing the global pandemic influenza action plan to increase vaccine supply since 2006. Building capacity in developing countries to manufacture influenza vaccine is an integral part of this plan, as well as research and development into more efficacious technologies, e.g. those that allow significant dose-sparing. To this end, the influenza vaccine technology transfer initiative was launched in 2007 and, to date, vaccine manufacturers in 11 developing countries have received grants to acquire the capacity to produce inactivated or live attenuated influenza vaccine for their populations. In addition, a centralized 'hub' has been established to facilitate training in the new technologies for scientists and regulators in the countries. This supplement of Vaccine is devoted to showcasing the interim results of the WHO initiative and the impressive progress made by the developing country manufacturers.     

Development of pandemic influenza vaccine production capacity in Viet Nam

The Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), a state-owned vaccine manufacturer, initiated research into avian influenza vaccines in the early 1990 s in response to the threat of a highly pathogenic avian influenza pandemic. Successful results from laboratory studies on A(H5N1) influenza virus attracted seed funds and led to participation in the WHO technology transfer project to enhance influenza vaccine production in developing countries. IVAC's goal is to produce 500,000 doses of inactivated monovalent whole-virion influenza vaccine per year by 2012, and progressively increase capacity to more than 1 million doses to protect essential populations in Viet Nam in the event of an influenza pandemic. The WHO seed grants, supplemented by other international partner support, enabled IVAC to build in a very short time an influenza vaccine manufacturing plant under Good Manufacturing Practice and relevant biosafety standards, a waste treatment system and a dedicated chicken farm for high-quality eggs. Much of the equipment and instrumentation required for vaccine production has been installed and tested for functional operation. Staff have been trained on site and at specialized courses which provided comprehensive manuals on egg-based manufacturing processes and biosafety. Following process validation, clinical trials will start in 2011 and the first domestic influenza vaccine doses are expected in 2012.     

Establishment of pandemic influenza vaccine production capacity at Bio Farma, Indonesia

In Indonesia, avian influenza A(H5N1) virus started to spread in humans in June 2005, with an alarming case-fatality rate of more than 80%. Considering that global influenza vaccine production capacity would barely have covered 10% of the world's pandemic vaccine needs, and that countries with no production facilities or prearranged contracts would be without access to a vaccine, the Government of Indonesia embarked on a programme to increase its readiness for a future influenza pandemic. This included the domestic production of influenza vaccine, which was entrusted to Bio Farma. This health security strategy consists of developing trivalent influenza vaccine production capacity in order to be able to convert immediately to monovalent production of up to 20 million pandemic doses for the Indonesian market upon receipt of the seed strain from the World Health Organization (WHO). For this purpose, a dedicated production facility is being constructed within the Bio Farma premises in Bandung. As an initial stage of influenza vaccine development, imported seasonal influenza bulk has been formulated and filled in the Bio Farma facility. Following three consecutive batches and successful clinical trials, the product was licensed by the Indonesian National Regulatory Authority and distributed commercially for the Hajj programme in 2009. With continued support from its technology transfer partners, Bio Farma is now advancing with the development of upstream processes to produce its own bulk for seasonal and pandemic use.     

A pandemic influenza vaccine in India: from strain to sale within 12 months

In the event of a highly pathogenic influenza pandemic, the Indian subcontinent would need 1.2 billion doses of vaccine to immunize its entire population, double if two doses were required to assure immunity. Serum Institute of India Limited (SII) thus became one of six initial grantees of the World Health Organization (WHO) technology transfer initiative to create capacity in developing countries to manufacture H5N1 pandemic influenza vaccine. At the outbreak of the A(H1N1) 2009 influenza pandemic, experience gained from the H5N1 project was used to develop a live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), since this was the only option for the level of surge capacity required for a large-scale immunization campaign in India. SII took <12 months to develop and market its LAIV intranasal vaccine from receipt of the seed strain from WHO. As of November 2010, over 2.5 million persons have been vaccinated with Nasovac(?) with no serious adverse reactions or vaccine failure after 3 months' post-marketing surveillance. The product has been submitted for prequalification by WHO for purchase by United Nations agencies. In parallel, SII also developed an inactivated influenza vaccine, and is currently looking to ensure the sustainability of its influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity.     

Challenges and successes for the grantees and the Technical Advisory Group of WHO’s influenza vaccine technology transfer initiative

One of the aims of the WHO Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines (GAP) was to transfer influenza vaccine production technology to interested manufacturers and governments in developing countries, to enable greater influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity against any pandemic threat or pandemic. For this objective, the GAP was supported by an independent Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to assist WHO to select vaccine manufacturing proposals for funding and to provide programmatic support for successful grantees. While there were many challenges, for both the TAG and grantees, there were also notable successes with an additional capacity of 338–600 million pandemic vaccine doses being made possible by the programme between 2007 and 2015, and a potential capacity of more than 600 million by 2016/17 with up to one billion doses expected by 2018/19. Seasonal vaccine production was also developed in 4 countries with another 4–5 countries expected to be producing seasonal vaccine by 2018/19. The relatively small WHO investments – in time and funding – made in these companies to develop their own influenza vaccine production facilities have had quite dramatic results.     

Technology transfer hub for pandemic influenza vaccine

Increase of influenza vaccine production capacity in developing countries has been identified as an important element of global pandemic preparedness. Nevertheless, technology transfer for influenza vaccine production to developing country vaccine manufacturers has proven difficult because of lack of interested technology providers. As an alternative to an individual provider–recipient relationship, a technology and training platform (a “hub”) for a generic non-proprietary process was established at a public sector European manufacturer's site. The conditions for setting up such a platform and the potential applicability of this model to other biologicals are discussed.