EIB earmarks €30 m to accelerate tuberculosis vaccine development in Africa

27 / 08 / 2020

By Marwa Nassar - -

The European Investment Bank (EIB) decided to extend a €30 million loan to accelerate tuberculosis vaccine development in Africa.

The loan agreement will be implemented with Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH, the German subsidiary of Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.

The agreement, initiated by kENUP Foundation, will support research and development of a new vaccine to prevent tuberculosis in infants in particular in high-risk HIV+ populations. The EIB loan is supported by the dedicated Impact Financing Envelope. The financing structure consists of a contingent loan where the repayment is due only if market authorization is achieved. If the trials do not reach the primary endpoint, the loan is written off.

“We are very pleased to get European Investment Bank funding for such an important trial for tuberculosis and upcoming HIV trials. With this support, I am confident that we will be able to help eliminate these dreadful diseases. Going forward such support from Institutions like the EIB will play a key role in tackling major diseases which have killed millions of people in developed and developing world.” said Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman & Managing Director, Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.

The World Health Organization declared tuberculosis a global emergency even surpassing HIV as the leading cause of infection-related death. “The BCG vaccine is the only tuberculosis vaccine currently available and is the standard of care for primary tuberculosis prevention for infants. Our goal is to replace BCG with VPM1002, which is safer, better tolerated and hopefully more effective, as prime vaccine in newborn infants. An achievement like this could be the long-desired turning point in global TB containment for almost 100 years.” Dr. Leander Grode, CEO of Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH.

“Tuberculosis is one of the top ten causes of death worldwide, causing millions of victims in recent years.” said Ambroise Fayolle, European Investment Bank Vice President. “Although the world is currently mostly preoccupied with Covid-19, TB and HIV have not gone away, yet they are treatable or even preventable. I’m proud that the European Investment Bank can support late-stage research into an improved TB vaccine that can save lives, especially children, as well as develop novel treatment for HIV. This research could have an enormous impact on health worldwide, and especially across Africa.”

Vaccine research and development for the project will be carried out by Vakzine Projekt Management in Germany and clinical trials scaled up in several high-burden sub-Saharan countries.

The vaccine will be also tested in high-risk, HIV-exposed groups to enable more effective treatment in Africa.

With 26% of new cases on the African continent, and two countries in the top six of most impacted countries, these developments could have a major health impact on the local population. Next to this, the parties expect to sign a further €15m loan in the near future in support of R&D investment into a portfolio of new drugs for the prevention and treatment of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Tuberculosis is the most common illness among people living with HIV, including among those taking antiretroviral treatment, and it is the major cause of HIV-related deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the brunt of the dual epidemic, accounting for 84% of all deaths from HIV-associated tuberculosis in 2018.

In particular, research backed by the EIB help to ensure a higher level of protection, improve safety and accelerate large scale production of a novel TB vaccine for immunization of infants than BCG. Affordability and availability of the vaccine is the primary goal of the initiative. Additionally, VPM1002 may potentially have positive effects on COVID-19 infections.

A study is currently testing whether it can protect from COVID-19, following research on mice, which showed it can protect against other viral lung infections.

Every year, nearly 1,5 million people die from tuberculosis, a disease which according to the WHO is ‘treatable and preventable’, and which is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide.