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European Commission investments in TB vaccine R&D through the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) and its partners have resulted in six TB vaccines currently being evaluated in clinical trials.

Making up almost 50% of the vaccine candidates of the current global clinical pipeline for TB vaccines, these investments have strengthened European excellence and leadership in the TB vaccine R&D arena. A key factor in producing these results has been partnerships that focus on knowledge development and early data sharing. The recent TBVI annual meeting (including the TBVAC2020 meeting and the TBVI symposium) in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, from 2-5 February 2016 was another demonstration of this effective partnership in action.

With 167 participants representing 58 research institutes, universities, industries, SMEs, funding agencies, technical agencies and partner organisations from both inside and outside the EU, the latest results and achievements from the EC-funded TBVAC2020 project were shared.

The meeting also brought the TBVAC2020 consortium members together with other EU H2020 projects on TB vaccines.

The TBVAC2020 project meeting provided the first results of R&D activities, including vaccine discovery and biomarkers of immunity and protection. During the vaccine discovery session, updates were provided on novel subunits as potential vaccine candidates and on genetically engineered live mycobacterial candidates including attenuated M. tuberculosis mutants, and new delivery strategies were presented.

Partners in the establishment of the global portfolio advisory committee explained strategies to support the global effort towards the development of improved TB vaccine regimen. During the correlates of protection session, promising diagnostic biomarkers were presented with the potential to discriminate active TB from latently infected individuals, as well as promising correlates of risk of developing TB. These markers/correlates allow for targeted interventions and risk stratification of cohorts for clinical studies.

The executive director of TBVI and the chair of the TBVAC2020 project announced that two new industry partners, GSK and Transgene SA, are joining the TBVAC2020 consortium. This partnership brings complementary expertise and adds another dynamic to the consortium, contributing to the diversification of new vaccine candidates through the vaccine pipeline.

Horizon2020projects.com first reported TBVI’s Horizon 2020 funding award back in January 2015.