We are deep into winter here—and that means respiratory illnesses are everywhere. I hope you are staying healthy!
If you live in the US, you may have seen that Kansas is facing one of the worst tuberculosis outbreaks in recent history. These cases are a reminder how contagious this disease is within families and communities—and that it remains one of the deadliest diseases in the world.
Every year there are more than 10 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, and 1.3 million people die.
This disease is a challenge to solve globally because current approaches to prevention and treatment are inadequate. The available vaccine is 100 years old and only works on infants, and the emergence of drug-resistant strains of TB require researchers to find new treatments.
However, with several TB vaccine candidates currently in the research pipeline that are ready to be tested for safety and efficacy, a breakthrough may be on the horizon. One candidate researchers are optimistic about is called MTBVAC.
Investigators in Spain and France started work on MTBVAC more than 20 years ago. It’s the only live, attenuated vaccine in the pipeline derived from the bacterium that causes TB disease in humans—to generate a broad protective immune response against TB.
Now, MTBVAC is ready to move to the next phase of clinical trials, which will assess its safety and ability to prevent active TB lung disease in adolescents and adults. Led by the global nonprofit IAVI, this trial will be underway soon in several sub-Saharan countries.
Gates Philanthropy Partners helped accelerate funding for this phase of MTBVAC trials. How? By facilitating a partnership with Open Philanthropy, which launched a regranting challenge to boost funding to existing, high-impact programs. They saw the potential for advancing progress toward eliminating TB through new vaccines. Open Philanthropy was able to co-invest with GPP to grant alongside the Gates Foundation’s TB R&D team’s funding to IAVI.
Identifying a new vaccine that is safe, effective, and accessible may take many trials and we always brace for failure. However, if a vaccine candidate like MTBVAC is successful, the opportunities to improve the lives for millions of people impacted by TB become much brighter.
Curious about how GPP facilitates partnerships with donors looking to make an impact on challenges like TB? Get in touch with us at: [email protected].
