31^st Euro Global Summit and Expo on Vaccines & Vaccination June 14-16, 2018 Barcelona, Spain

Vaccine Development is an activity that focuses on a variety of technological initiatives and applied research, which enhance and promote improved systems and practices for vaccine safety. In the past year, the unprecedented Ebola disease outbreak galvanized research and industry response and as we continue to search for solutions, we must review the lessons learned in order to overcome the current challenges. Vaccine development is a long, complex process, often lasting 10-15 years and involving a combination of public and private involvement. The current system for developing, testing, and regulating vaccines developed during the 20th century as the groups involved standardized their procedures and regulations.

Vaccine research is long, complex and costly. Because a vaccine is a biological product made from living microorganisms, its development cycle is quite different from that of a pharmaceutical product.

An AIDS vaccine does not yet exist, but efforts to develop a vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, have been underway for many years. An HIV vaccine could be effective in either of two ways. A “preventive” vaccine would stop HIV infection occurring altogether, whereas a “therapeutic” vaccine would not stop infection, but would prevent or delay illness in people who do become infected, and might also reduce the risk of them transmitting the virus to other people. Although a preventive vaccine would be ideal, a therapeutic vaccine would also be highly beneficial. The basic idea behind all HIV vaccines is to encourage the human immune system to fight HIV.

Historically, vaccines have been our best weapon against the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, including smallpox, polio, measles, and yellow fever. Unfortunately, we currently do not have a vaccine for HIV. The virus has unique ways of evading the immune system, and the human body seems incapable of mounting an effective immune response against it. As a result, scientists do not have a clear picture of what is needed to provide protection against HIV.

Immunotherapeutics is treatment that uses your body's own immune system to help fight cancer. Get information about the different types of immunotherapy and the types of cancer they are used to treat. The main types of immunotherapy now being used to treat cancer include:

1. Cancer vaccines
2. Monoclonal antibodies
3. Immune checkpoint inhibitors
4. Other, non-specific immunotherapies

Some types of immunotherapy are also sometimes called biologic therapy or biotherapy.

In the last few decades immunotherapy has become an important part of treating some types of cancer. Newer types of immune treatments are now being studied, and they’ll impact how we treat cancer in the future

Population protection by vaccination against infections has been one of the major achievements of public health and is of considerable importance in controlling respiratory disease. Our mandate is to prevent, reduce or eliminate vaccine-preventable and infectious respiratory diseases; reduce the negative impact of emerging and re-emerging respiratory infections. Viral respiratory infections continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality in infants and young children as well as in at-risk adults and the elderly. Although many viral pathogens are capable of causing acute respiratory disease, vaccine development has to focus on a limited number of pathogens (i.e., agents that commonly cause serious lower respiratory disease). Inactivated and, more recently, live attenuated influenza virus vaccines are the mainstay of interpandemic influenza prevention, but vaccines are not available yet for other important viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus, metapneumovirus, the parainfluenza viruses, and avian influenza virus with pandemic potential. Reverse genetics systems that allow rational vaccine development are now widely used, and considerable progress has been made in preclinical and clinical development of novel respiratory virus vaccines.

Vaccination given to children is called childhood Immunization. It is currently recommended that all children receive vaccination against the infectious diseases unless the child has special circumstances, such as a compromised immune system or neurological disorders. In our mobile society, over a million people each day people travel to and from other countries, where many vaccine-preventable diseases remain relatively common. Without vaccines, epidemics of many preventable diseases could return, resulting in increased - and unnecessary - illness, disability, and death among children.

We have record or near record low levels of vaccine-preventable childhood diseases in the United States, but that does not mean these have disappeared. Many of the viruses and bacteria are still circulating in this country or are only a plane ride away. That’s why it’s important that children, especially infants and young children receive recommended immunizations on time.

Vaccines are the best defence we have against serious, preventable, and sometimes deadly contagious diseases. Vaccines are some of the safest medical products available, but like any other medical product, there may be health risk. Accurate information about the value of vaccines as well as their possible side-effects helps people to make informed decisions about vaccination.

Importance of Vaccine Safety

• Decreases in disease risks and increased attention on vaccine risks.
• Public confidence in vaccine safety is critical
• Higher standard of safety is expected of vaccines
• Vaccines generally healthy (vs. ill for drugs)
• lower risk tolerance = need to search for rare reactions
• Vaccination universally recommended and mandated

Vaccines can help keep you and your growing family healthy. If you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy, the specific vaccinations you need are determined by factors such as your age, lifestyle, medical conditions you may have, such as asthma or diabetes, type and locations of travel, and previous vaccinations. Benefits of vaccinating pregnant women usually outweigh potential risks when the likelihood of disease exposure is high, when infection would pose a risk to the mother or fetus, and when the vaccine is unlikely to cause harm. All women who will be pregnant (any trimester) during the flu season should be offered this vaccine. Talk to your doctor to see if this applies to you. Tetanus/Diphtheria/Pertussis (Tdap): Tdap is recommended during pregnancy, preferably between 27 and 36 weeks' gestation, to protect baby from whooping cough.

A Vaccine adjuvant is an ingredient of a vaccine that helps create a stronger immune response in the patient’s body.  In other words, adjuvants help vaccines work better. Some vaccines made from weakened or dead germs contain naturally occurring adjuvants and help the body produce a strong protective immune response. However, most vaccines developed today include just small components of germs, such as their proteins, rather than the entire virus or bacteria. These vaccines often must be made with adjuvants to ensure the body produces an immune response strong enough to protect the patient from the germ he or she is being vaccinated against. Aluminum gels or aluminum salts are vaccine ingredients that have been used in vaccines since the 1930s.  Small amounts of aluminum are added to help the body build stronger immunity against the germ in the vaccine. Aluminum is one of the most common metals found in nature and is present in air, food, and water. The amount of aluminum present in vaccines is low and is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Veterinary vaccines are to improve the health and welfare of companion animals, increase production of livestock in a cost-effective manner, and prevent animal-to-human transmission from both domestic animals and wildlife. Several vaccine types can de distinguished among the second-generation veterinary vaccines, depending whether they are live or inactivated, according to the strain of rabies virus used and the characteristics of the cell substrate chosen for viral replication. More recently a third generation of live veterinary rabies vaccine has been developed using recombinant technology. Depending upon the expression system these vaccines are used either parenterally or orally. Oral rabies vaccines are widely used in foxes in Europe and in racoons in the USA.

Vaccines are an important part of routine preventive care for older adults, but most adults don’t get their vaccines as recommended. Omitting vaccination leaves adults needlessly vulnerable to severe illnesses, long-term suffering and death from preventable infections. Vaccines are recommended for adults of all ages, they are particularly important for older persons who are at great risk of serious debilitating consequences and death from infectious diseases. Vaccination is particularly important for individuals living in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, as disease can spread easily among people in close proximity.

Viral vaccines contain either inactivated viruses or attenuated (alive but not capable of causing disease) viruses. Inactivated or killed viral vaccines contain viruses, which have lost their ability to replicate and in order for it to bring about a response it contains more antigen than live vaccines. Attenuated or live vaccines contain the live form of the virus. These viruses are not pathogenic but are able to induce an immune response.

Viral vaccines prevent or modify the severity of illness in the individual and interrupt or reduce the transmission of the pathogens to other susceptible people. Through these mechanisms, vaccines against smallpox, polio, measles and hepatitis B have had an enormous impact on world health over the last 50 years.

A preventative vaccine is administered to a person who is free of the targeted infection. By introducing a part of the virus or an inactive virus (which acts like a decoy) into the body, the immune system reacts by producing antibodies. Preventive vaccines are widely used to prevent diseases like polio, chicken pox, measles, mumps, rubella, influenza (flu), and hepatitis A and B.

In addition to preventive vaccines, there are also “therapeutic vaccines”. These are vaccines that are designed to treat people who already have a disease. Some scientists prefer to refer to therapeutic vaccines as “therapeutic immunogens.

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. The condition can be self-limiting or can progress to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer. Hepatitis viruses are the most common cause of hepatitis in the world but other infections, toxic substances (e.g. alcohol, certain drugs), and autoimmune diseases can also cause hepatitis.

DNA vaccination is a technique for protecting an animal against disease by injecting it with genetically engineered DNA so cells directly produce an antigen, resulting in a protective immunological response.

Vaccination consists of stimulating the immune system with an infectious agent, or components of an infectious agent, modified in such a manner that no harm or disease is caused, but ensuring that when the host is confronted with that infectious agent, the immune system can adequately neutralize it before it causes any ill effect. For over a hundred years vaccination has been effected by one of two approaches: either introducing specific antigens against which the immune system reacts directly; or introducing live attenuated infectious agents that replicate within the host without causing disease synthesize the antigens that subsequently prime the immune system.

Most infectious agents enter the body at mucosal surfaces and therefore mucosal immune responses function as a first line of defence. Protective mucosal immune responses are most effectively induced by mucosal immunization through oral, nasal, rectal or vaginal routes, but the vast majority of vaccines in use today are administered by injection. Immunisation involves the delivery of antigens to the mucosal immune system (dispersed or organised into units such as Peyer’s patches in the intestine or the nasal-associated lymphoid tissue in the oropharangeal cavity). The antigen delivery systems may comprise a simple buffer solution with/without adjuvants or an advanced particulate formulation, such as liposomes or nanoparticles. The most commonly evaluated route for mucosal antigen delivery is oral, but other routes have also been explored.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is an inactivated (not live) vaccine which protects against four major types of HPV.

These include two types that cause about 70% of cervical cancer and two types that cause about 90% of genital warts. HPV vaccine can prevent most genital warts and most cases of cervical cancer. Protection from HPV vaccine is expected to be long-lasting. But vaccinated women still need cervical cancer screening because the vaccine does not protect against all HPV types that cause cervical cancer.

Vaccines that target blood-feeding disease vectors, such as mosquitoes and ticks, have the potential to protect against the many diseases caused by vector-borne pathogens. Vector-borne diseases are among the most complex of all infectious diseases to prevent and control. Vector- borne diseases, most of which are transmitted in and around the home, are best controlled by a combination of vector control (use of public health insecticides on bednets, or by spraying), medicines and vaccines.

Historically, successful vector-borne disease prevention resulted from management or elimination of vector populations.  Malaria was driven out of the USA and most of Europe in this way. Where vector control has been consistently applied in the past, the results have been dramatic, especially with early efforts to control malaria by spraying the inside surfaces of houses with insecticides. Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) and long-lasting insecticide treated bednets have been very effective over the last 10 years and are widely regarded as one of the main contributors to the more than 1 million lives saved.

BCG, or bacille Calmette-Guerin (Tuberculosis Vaccines), is a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB) disease. Many foreign-born persons have been BCG-vaccinated. BCG is used in many countries with a high prevalence of TB to prevent childhood tuberculous meningitis and miliary disease. However, Tuberculosis Vaccine is not generally recommended for use in the United States because of the low risk of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the variable effectiveness of the vaccine against adult pulmonary TB, and the vaccine’s potential interference with tuberculin skin test reactivity. The Tuberculosis Vaccine should be considered only for very select persons who meet specific criteria and in consultation with a TB expert.

Plant-based vaccines are recombinant protein subunit vaccines. Ideally, the choice of plant species used to produce the selected antigen should allow for oral delivery in the form of an edible vaccine. These vaccines are well suited to combat diseases where there is a clear antigen candidate, and where the costs of production or delivery for any current vaccine are prohibitive. Several academic and industrial research groups are currently investigating the use of plant-based vaccines in both humans and animals. To date, the most advanced human vaccine projects have successfully completed phase I clinical trials, and animal vaccine projects have given promising data in early phase trials targeting specific animal species.

Anyone planning to travel abroad may need immunizations before departure. Although few immunizations are compulsory for international travel, some are recommended for the traveller’s protection. Some vaccines must be given in 2–3 doses several weeks apart. Therefore, a doctor should be consulted at least 2–3 months before departure.