Collaboration between industry, research, universities, government, and organisations is crucial for vaccine development and addressing public health needs, with a focus on overcoming barriers, accelerating access to technologies, and enhancing public-private partnerships. This is emphasised by the program committee chair Jenny Herz and a program committee member Professor Jodie McVernon of the Inaugural Vaccine Value Chain Conference, who invited Australian Health Journal to attend.
For the first time, key decision-makers and thought leaders from government, industry, academia, NGOs, and representatives from the immunisation community converged in a 2 day conference in Sydney hosted by Biointelect, highlighting the transformative potential of collaborative innovation.
In talking to Australian Health Journal, Ms Herz spoke about the end to end value chain of vaccine development involving discovery, research, product development, clinical trials, regulatory and reimbursement processes, and community implementation, with a focus on understanding the community’s perspectives and needs. Collaboration between industry and academic research is crucial for overcoming challenges in vaccine development and commercialisation.
She reflects how the pandemic spurred innovation in vaccine development and clinical trials, revealing the need to address gaps and explore new pathways for accelerating access to technologies and medicine, with more venture capital available for funding oncology products than infectious diseases.
According to the Inaugural Program Committee, there are many aspects involved in the value chain of vaccines from discovery through to implementation. However, the understanding of all the challenges, barriers, and levers to streamline the value chain across all key stakeholders is fragmented and sometimes siloed in Australia’s federated system.
During the COVID-19 pandemic novel vaccines were developed globally in record time. Australia’s public health ecosystem pulled together, but the gaps became clear. Since then, there have been many lessons learnt and significant investment by jurisdictional and Federal Governments, the private sector and philanthropy into different parts of the ecosystem.
While Australia has strengths in many areas, such as discovery research, the knowledge and experience to translate discoveries effectively, to truly impact the health of the community, requires data availability, resources and know-how all along the value chain. Access to funding and skilled workforce remains fragmented across our ecosystem, and this affects Australia’s ability to capitalise on research strengths in infectious diseases and immunology.
Professor McVernon and Ms Herz talk about collaboration between public and private sectors being essential to address unmet needs, and funding for innovation to come from NGOs, philanthropy, or public money if it is not attractive to the private sector.
The consensus of opinions coming from the conference speakers and delegates was that Australia needs to take a national approach and present itself as a strong player in the international community to find its relevant place in the value chain.
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Orthopaedic surgeon driven to understand & manage infection
In tandem with his clinical practice, Associate Professor Tetsworth is deeply engaged in orthopaedic research, with a keen interest in infection management, infection control, limb salvage, bone defect reconstruction, biomarker development for infection, bone growth hormone delivery, and the use of 3D printed models for reconstructing segmental bone defects.
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Thyroid health into pregnancy
‘Without an adequate amount of thyroid hormone mothers can be exposed to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including gestational hypertension and preeclampsia or eclampsia, which affect around 10% of pregnant women and are the leading causes of maternal and neonatal mortality worldwide. Mothers who suffer from hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are at increased risk of long-term cardiovascular consequences and hypertensive disorders in subsequent pregnancies. Evidence also indicates a risk of reduced cognitive ability to their offspring.
‘Knowing if you are genetically predisposed to Hashimoto’s or Graves’ Diseases, which are both thyroid autoimmune disorders is important to be aware of, to ensure all appropriate tests are ordered. Autoimmune disorders may predispose mothers to a thyroid problem during pregnancy’, says Professor Creswell Eastman, who also serves as the ATF’s Principal Medical Advisor.
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Clinical pain neuroscientist talks about how the brain processes pain information
Persistent pain affects one in five Australians and costs the nation an estimated $73 billion per year in health system costs, lost productivity and other financial costs.
Persistent pain also has debilitating personal costs – negatively impacting quality of life and the ability to engage in meaningful work and life activities.
Despite the enormity of this problem, very few effective treatments exist with most showing only small to moderate improvements. New treatments are desperately needed. The group believes the best way to create impactful change is to work with people with lived experience of persistent pain to devise solutions with them, not for them.
