CIDRAP publishes an R&D roadmap on coronavirus vaccines to advance a new global strategy for broadly protective vaccines

THE Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota today released the Coronavirus vaccine research and development Roadmap (R&D) (CVR), a major global strategy to develop broadly protective vaccines against the ever-emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and the threat of novel coronaviruses that could cause pandemics in the future. The report, developed with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is the product of an international collaboration of 50 scientific experts from around the world who have forged a unified strategy to make these much-needed vaccines a reality.

“The COVID-19 pandemic marks the third time in just 20 years that a coronavirus has emerged to cause a public health crisis,” said Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, Director of CIDRAP, Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota, and Presidential McKnight Chair in Public Health. “The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the hard lesson that we need to be better prepared. Rather than wait for the emergence of a fourth coronavirus – or the arrival of a particularly dangerous variant of SARS-CoV-2 – we must act now to develop better, longer lasting and more broadly protective vaccines. If we wait for the next event to occur before acting, we will be too late.

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 was preceded by an outbreak in 2003 caused by another coronavirus called SARS-CoV. Then, in 2012, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, emerged. Coronaviruses can carry a high risk of death: for MERS-CoV, about a third of infections lead to death, and about one in ten for SARS-CoV, although none spread easily from person to person. ‘other.

In contrast, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, has a much lower death rate, but because it is so highly contagious between people, it has caused worldwide more than 650 million confirmed cases and 6.6 million deaths. by the end of 2022. Even more concerning is the threat of a novel coronavirus in the future that could be both highly transmissible And highly deadly. Additionally, the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 could further compromise the important protection provided by current vaccines against serious illness and death.

The CVR confronts these extraordinary threats with a detailed, comprehensive and coordinated plan to accelerate the development of durable and broadly protective coronavirus vaccines capable of preventing serious illness and death, and potentially protecting against infection and transmission. The CVR further underscores the goal that future broadly protective vaccines should be suitable for all regions of the world, including remote areas and low- and middle-income countries.

“We might want to be done with coronaviruses, but coronaviruses aren’t done with us. At this point in history, complacency is our greatest enemy,” said Linfa Wang, PhD, a professor at the Emerging Infectious Diseases Program at Duke-NUS Medical School and Executive Director of the Program for Epidemic Preparedness and Response Research (PREPARE), Singapore. “It is critical that we begin NOW to develop future-ready vaccines against coronaviruses circulating in animals that could infect humans and cause pandemics in the future like SARS-CoV-3 and beyond.

The report highlights different paths to success. One approach could involve a step-by-step process, starting with vaccines to protect against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Another approach could focus on vaccines that can protect against multiple types of coronaviruses, including those likely to spread from animals to humans in the future.

The CVR summarizes key barriers and gaps and outlines specific goals and steps to advance broadly protective coronavirus vaccines. The work is organized into five thematic areas:

• Virology. Developing broadly protective coronavirus vaccines requires knowing more about the global distribution of coronaviruses circulating in animal reservoirs that have the potential to spread to humans.
• Immunology. Scientists need to learn more about human immunology, including research that will expand the extent and durability of immune protection against vaccines and natural infections. A better understanding of mucosal immunity may unlock new strategies to block infection.
• Vaccinology. Identifying key preferred product features will inform vaccine R&D priorities and strategies and accelerate discovery. Harnessing new technologies and identifying the best methods to assess vaccine effectiveness will further catalyze critical advances.
• Animal and human infection models for vaccine research. The limited availability of a range of suitable animal models is a major obstacle to the development of broadly protective coronavirus vaccines. Additionally, work is needed to explore the potential role of the safe and effective use of controlled human infection models in coronavirus vaccine research.
• Policy and Funding. The successful development and global distribution of broadly protective coronavirus vaccines will require reinvigorating and sustaining a high level of political commitment and long-term investment in vaccine R&D and manufacturing.

“Time and time again, we have seen that investment in science brings solutions: the COVID-19 pandemic has galvanized the research community and advanced vaccine R&D efficiently and through broad collaborations. said Bruce Gellin, MD, MPH, head of global public health strategy. at the Rockefeller Foundation. “The Coronavirus Vaccine R&D Roadmap charts a course to aggressively outpace new and emerging threats by prioritizing the development of vaccines that provide long-lasting immunity against a wide range of coronaviruses and are equitably available to all.

“Now is the time not to sit down,” said Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, ” but it is time to aggressively build on the science and networks forged during the COVID-19 pandemic to develop improved next-generation coronavirus vaccines.

“The vaccines we currently have for COVID-19 are the most important tool we have in our fight against the pandemic,” said Charlie Weller, PhD, head of infectious disease prevention at the Wellcome Trust. “But we can do better – by developing vaccines that give us broader protection – protection against new variants, protection against coronaviruses that have not yet emerged but could cause the next pandemic. We may discover new ways to deliver vaccines, such as skin patches or intranasal vaccines – and perhaps even vaccines that could block transmission. This roadmap creates the structured plan that will give us the tools we need to better protect ourselves, our families and our communities around the world.

Drs. Osterholm, Gellin and Weller served as members of the CVR steering group; Drs. Wang and Barouch served as members of the CVR working group.

A review article on CVR, “A Research and Development (R&D) Roadmap for Broadly Protective Coronavirus Vaccines: A Pandemic Preparedness Strategy,” by CIDRAP Medical Director Kristine A. Moore, MD, MPH, et al., (DOI : 10.1016/ j.vaccine.2023.02.032) will be published in the journal Vaccine by Elsevier. Copies of this article are available on request to accredited journalists; please contact the Elsevier press office at [email protected] or +31 20 485 2719.

Note to Editors
A science webinar on the CVR is scheduled for Thursday, April 20, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EDT. Register for the webinar here.

About the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
CIDRAP is a world leader in public health preparedness and response to emerging infectious diseases. In 2021, CIDRAP published the Influenza vaccine R&D roadmap, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust and developed with a group of international partners, to accelerate the development of improved seasonal influenza vaccines and the generation of broadly protective or universal influenza vaccines that could mitigate the impact of future influenza pandemics . CIDRAP has also generated roadmaps for the World Health Organization for medical countermeasures against the Ebola/Marburg, Lassa, Nipah and Zika viruses. Created in 2001, CIDRAP is part of the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota.

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