CNS: Articles of Jojanneke Nieuwenhuis

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World AIDS day 2011: Want to get to zero? Deal with TB!

A giant condom will be 'wrapped' around the Dutch Munt Tower in Amsterdam this week. It’s probably one of the more striking activities that will mark World AIDS Day. Meetings, film-viewings, theatre plays, articles, brochures and many other happenings will call upon people to join the fight against AIDS. To effectively fight AIDS though, we need to also fight tuberculosis. 'Getting to zero' is this year’s theme for World AIDS Day.

What if no extra funding for tuberculosis vaccine research comes in? To Joris Vandeputte, Vice-President of the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), this is an unimaginable scenario. “That would delay the delivery of new vaccines with ten to fifteen years. Or more likely, the most advanced candidates would disappear completely and we would be back at square one.” Dr Vandeputte hosted a seminar about arguments for investment in the development of new TB vaccines at the recently concluded 42nd Union World Conference on Lung Health in France. During the seminar tuberculosis advocates discussed how to broaden the range of arguments that can be used to convince politicians and decision makers to invest in the fight against tuberculosis.

TB vaccine research is moving forward steadily. In their 2010 annual report, the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) looks back at a scientifically successful year. Researchers within TBVI’s network are progressing towards new, safer and more effective tuberculosis vaccines. However, in order to successfully deliver these live-saving vaccines to the market, both political support and innovative investment are crucial. Worldwide, 12 vaccine candidates are now in various phases of clinical trials and several more are on their way. Many of these candidates received support through one of TBVI’s research projects.

The MTBVAC01 vaccine candidate, developed to protect people against tuberculosis, will start Phase I clinical trials early in 2012. This was announced by the Spanish biopharmaceutical company Biofabri. The candidate was developed by the University of Zaragoza, Spain and is part of the international portfolio of TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI). Tuberculosis causes almost two million deaths per year.

On 7 May Prof. Peter Lawætz Andersen of the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) in Denmark, research partner and steering committee member of TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), will receive the prestigious Novo Nordisk prize. He receives the prize of DKK 1,500,000 (around € 200,000) for his pioneering research on the development of vaccines against tuberculosis. The prize is awarded annually by the Danish Novo Nordisk Foundation as a reward for outstanding medical research or other research efforts that could benefit medical science. The prize comprises a personal reward of DKK 500,000 and a research grant of DKK 1,000,000.

European politicians, tuberculosis (TB) advocates and health advisers are gathering to discuss an innovative financing model that would enable scientific discoveries to be translated into TB vaccines. On the occasion of a World TB Day meeting, Joris Vandeputte of TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) will present a new funding plan: "Our governments are faced with a difficult question: how to reduce the deficit while maintaining a commitment to invest 3% of gross national income in research and innovation?"

Collaboration and funding are some of the major requirements for delivering new, more effective and safer vaccines against tuberculosis (TB). This was a much-heard statement during the annual research meeting of the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI). 'Challenging' would be an understatement when it comes to describing the WHO's latest plan for eliminating tuberculosis. Challenging. But certainly not impossible. In fact, TBVI's research partners, many of whom came together in Switzerland in early February 2011, are carefully optimistic about the past year's advances in vaccine research.