The Fiocruz News Agency disclosed a full article about the contribution to be given by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the development of the vaccine against esquistossomiasis, a project by the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC/Fiocruz), supported by Fiotec.

Esquistossomiasis vaccine project must be funded by the WHO

Fiocruz has recently made another achievement in the health innovation field: the project for the development of vaccine against esquistossomiasis, based on the Sm14 molecule, is in the list of the demonstrative proposals in Health Research and Development pre-approved for being funded by the World Health Organization (WHO). The projects will be presented in the next World Health Summit, to be held in May next year. This is a great acknowledgement, placing the project among the world most promising ones.

It is currently in the clinic test phase, and it is based on an unedited finding, led by researcher Miriam Tendler, from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC/Fiocruz), in a national and international collaboration network. The nomination was announced during the meeting of the organization’s Global Technical Consultation, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from December 3 to 5. “This acknowledgement results from a 15-year work that will source the world’s first vaccine for helminthes, and help fighting a serious disease in the Americas and Africa”, said the Foundation’s vice-president for Health Production and Innovation, Jorge Bermudez. According to him, the project will be one of the world’s leaders in showing the relation among research, development and innovation.

The project coordinator, Miriam Tendler, emphasizes that it is a very relevant acknowledgement. “We are facing an unedited opportunity for Brazil to perform an essential role of generating and meeting technologic demands in direct benefit of the parasite diseases endemic countries, not inserted in the scenario of the commercial markets explored by the industries”, Tendler says. “This achievement had the contribution from both the scientific results of the experimental phase of the vaccine, and the recent results attesting the technology overcoming two major bottlenecks in the development of a vaccine: the production process staging and the beginning of the human clinic tests with safety and immunogenicity results attested”, Tendler complements.

About the nomination

The demonstrative projects submitted to WHO should have as purpose the development of health technologies (medicines, diagnoses, vaccines etc.) aimed at diseases disproportionally affecting development countries, where the gaps in the R&D field remain without solution due to market failures. The proposals sent by the six regions of WHO were to show alternatives in the use of research and development leading to concrete innovation results. The total of 22 projects was submitted, out of which seven were selected.

The proposals chosen will be sent to the WHO Executive Board, to meet from January 20 to 25 and assess which of them will be submitted to the World Health Summit. “We expect the project to continue being supported by the specialists and countries member of the World Health Organization and, thus, gain more visibility and priority for receiving the WHO funding devices”, said Bermudez.

The project

The vaccine for esquistossomiasis, developed and patented by IOC/Fiocruz, is the world’s first immunizer for the disease. The project has finished the phase 1 clinic tests stage, in human beings, last year, and they shown the safety and efficiency of protection against the disease. For its production, the researchers applied the Sm14 protein – from Schistosoma mansoni, the agent causing the disease -, isolated in the institute since the 1990’s.

The immunizer has also shown to be efficient for fasciolosis (verminosis affecting cattle), which gives room for the development of vaccines aimed at other human diseases provoked by helminthes. The Sm14 research model is also unedited in the Foundation, as it results from the first public-private partnership developed by the institution, with the company Ourofino Agronegócios. The announcement of the vaccine’s efficiency and safety was made in June last year. The study was funded by IOC/Fiocruz and by scientific research funding devices like CNPq and Finep, among others. The esquistossomiasis affects 200 million people, mainly in the poorest countries.

(Source: CCS/Fiocruz)