Ansley Kahn

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. According to clinical trial results recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, tafenoquine—a new single-dose oral antimalarial drug developed by Medicines for Malaria Venture and GlaxoSmithKline—significantly lowered the risk of the recurrence of malaria caused by the Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) species of the parasite. P. vivax malaria affects approximately 7.5 million people annually and often lies dormant in the liver even after initial treatment, causing debilitating recurring malaria episodes. This single-dose treatment could significantly boost cure rates, as adherence to the standard two-week drug course is difficult in low-resource regions in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and parts of North Africa where this form of malaria is endemic. Based on the results of this clinical trial, the US Food and Drug Administration has already approved tafenoquine for use in July 2018, followed by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration in September 2018. A new, long-acting contraceptive designed to be self-administered by women using microneedle skin patch technology could provide a valuable new family planning option, particularly for women in low-resource settings where access to healthcare can be limited. When the patch is applied to the skin, microscopic needles break off and remain under the surface of the skin where biodegradable polymers slowly release the contraceptive drug, levonorgestrel. In animal testing, an experimental microneedle patch provided a therapeutic level of contraceptive hormone for more than a month with a single application. Experimental patches designed for humans have been developed but not yet tested. If the microneedle contraceptive patch does eventually reach the market, it could become the first self-administered, long-acting contraceptive that does not require a conventional needle injection.A new rapid DNA and RNA sequencing device could offer potential to instantly diagnose viruses such as Ebola or Zika at the point of care during an outbreak. Researchers at the French agricultural research institute CIRAD have found a way to use a device known as the Oxford Nanopore MinION device, which can sequence DNA and RNA in real time, to identify plant viruses—and potentially animal and human viruses too. The CIRAD team was able to test and validate the use of this portable device to identify plant viruses quickly and early in the infection process—avoiding the time-consuming and potentially dangerous task of transferring contaminated samples to a lab. The device’s ability to rapidly and accurately detect a virus in plants is a step forward in providing real-time detection of viruses with a mobile device, which would be especially useful in low-resource settings and remote areas. This device has the potential to help public health officials manage outbreaks by reducing the time between taking a sample and diagnosing it as carrying a particular virus—enabling the detection of potential outbreaks at an earlier stage than was previously possible.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch have developed an experimental, single-dose drug that has shown to successfully protect non-human primates against all known strains of the Ebola virus. "Our experimental drug can protect against all forms of Ebola known to harm people, suggesting that it will continue to protect people if the Ebola viruses evolve over time," noted scientist Thomas Geisbert. In contrast to many other therapeutics developed to protect against Ebola, a single-dose, broadly effective drug could provide protection against the virus quickly and efficiently during an outbreak while reducing the burden on health care workers in the field. Further studies could explore the efficacy of lower doses of the drug, which could allow for easy-to-administer treatment via auto-injectors.Researchers at the University of Arizona have taken a major step forward in developing a “mosquito birth control” drug—which targets a unique protein in female mosquitoes—to help curb the spread of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. This unique protein is critical for a female’s offspring to hatch and when blocked causes defective shells, leaving the embryos inside to die. Developing a drug that targets this specific protein could provide a way to reduce mosquito populations without harming other insects, such as bees. One scientist noted he hoped this discovery could lead to the development of new insecticides within the next five years, which could be applied to bednets and used in anti-mosquito sprays. Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have developed an experimental new treatment for tuberculosis (TB), which is administered using an inhaler. The treatment—which reduces the bacteria in the lungs that causes TB while helping the patient’s immune system fight the disease—uses all trans retinoic acid (atRA), a derivative of Vitamin A that has been shown as an effective treatment for TB. To deliver the treatment, researchers packaged atRA into safe-for-consumption particles small enough to use in an inhaler. The particles significantly reduced TB-causing bacteria and associated lung damage, which supports the treatment’s potential for clinical testing.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.Scientists from the Fraunhofer Society have developed a first-of-its kind technology that uses electron beams to produce inactivated vaccines quickly and reproducibly without the use of chemicals. Inactivated vaccines contain pathogens that have been killed so they are no longer harmful to patients. Often these pathogens are killed using chemicals, such as diluted formaldehyde. This process is time consuming and can have a negative impact on both the structure of the pathogen and the reproducibility of the vaccine. The new technique uses electrons to fragment the DNA of the pathogens while maintaining their external structure, which is key to triggering an effective immune response. It will likely be another two to four years before vaccines produced using electron beams can be tested in clinical trials. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation to Valneva’s chikungunya vaccine candidate, which will allow the product to receive expedited review by the agency given it holds potential to fill an unmet medical need. The company is expected to release phase 1 data for the vaccine candidate in the coming weeks. Currently, there are no approved treatments or vaccines for chikungunya‒a disease that causes debilitating joint pain‒though there are several candidate vaccines in clinical testing.The Marburg virus, a deadly cousin of Ebola, has been isolated in fruit bats in Sierra Leone, marking the first time the virus has been found in West Africa. According to two teams of scientists involved in this discovery, five bats caught in three health districts tested positive for the virus. Genetic testing revealed multiple strains of the virus in each bat, which suggests that the virus has circulated in West Africa for many years. This testing was done as part of a project funded by the US Agency for International Development, known as PREDICT, which aims to detect dangerous pathogens in animals and take steps to prevent them from crossing over into humans and triggering disease outbreaks. PREDICT takes a “one health” approach by uniting the work of medical doctors, veterinarians, and occasionally plant biologists to detect threats in other species.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. For the first time, scientists have mapped how the world’s deadliest malaria parasite, plasmodium falciparum, is able to enter and infect human blood cells—a key advancement in the quest for a vaccine against a parasite that kills more than 500,000 people each year. An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Australia, used the world’s most advanced cryo-electron microscope, the Titan Krios, to create a three-dimensional image of the parasite’s “key” to infection—a complex of three parasite proteins which work together to unlock and enter a human cell. This mapping provides scientists with a clear picture of how infection takes place, with lead researcher Professor Alan Cowman noting, "We now have the information required to design a vaccine that gives the immune system precise instructions about how to stop the malaria parasite." According to a report released by the Treatment Action Group, global spending on tuberculosis (TB) research hit an all-time high in 2017—reaching US$772 million, up from $726 million in 2016. Despite this upward trend, according to the TB research community, total TB research funding for 2017 still falls short of the $2 billion per year needed to end the disease by 2030—a target that is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and part of the World Health Organization’s Global Plan to End TB. The report also notes that most of the $46 million increase in TB research funding from 2016 to 2017 was driven by funding from the public sector, with the US government as the largest investor with a contribution of $312 million. An earlier version of this report was released in September to inform the first-ever United Nations High Level Meeting on TB, where member states committed to closing the $1.3 billion annual gap in funding TB research. Using multiple state-of-the-art microscopes, researchers at the University of Missouri were able to see how the chikungunya virus moves within a mosquito’s body—contributing to new understanding that could help one day lead to the prevention of mosquito-borne diseases. According to one researcher, it was previously common understanding that “…when a mosquito has picked up a virus, it first needs some time to build up inside the midgut, or stomach, before infecting other tissues in the mosquito." However, this study proved there is a narrow window of 32–48 hours between the time when a mosquito picks up a virus to when the virus leaves the mosquito’s stomach to infect someone it has bitten. One day, researchers aim to inhibit the genes involved with the release of the virus from within the mosquito’s stomach to prevent transmission of mosquito-borne diseases.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. The government of the United Kingdom (UK), through a public-private partnership called UK Research and Innovation, is building the country’s first vaccine manufacturing and innovation center with additional funding and expertise from Janssen, Merck & Co., and Wellcome Trust. The center will focus on creating rapid, cost-effective ways to develop and manufacture vaccines for clinical trials and global distribution, with Ebola and Lassa fever among the infectious diseases the center will tackle. The vaccine manufacturing and innovation center will be based in Oxford and is slated to open in 2022. A comprehensive study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases shows the remarkable genetic diversity of HIV and reveals how the subtypes of the virus are distributed by country and region and where new strains are emerging. The systematic review and global survey found that the greatest diversity of HIV exists in Central Africa and subtype C causes the greatest number of HIV infections globally. Subtype C was also found to be the near-exclusive strain of HIV in southern Africa, where HIV prevalence is highest, strengthening the case for prioritizing the development of an HIV vaccine specific to this subtype. Overall, the study also highlighted the challenging nature of developing a vaccine against a virus that is so genetically diverse and widespread. Researchers from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine have developed six antibodies that could be used to test for and potentially treat Zika—a virus which has afflicted more than 1.5 million people worldwide and for which there is no effective vaccine or treatment. Inexpensive to produce and identifiable via means like a simple filter paper test in the field, these antibodies have the potential to provide protection against the virus or could also be used in an antibody-based diagnostic test for Zika, potentially providing an inexpensive and quick means of monitoring for the virus. One researcher noted, “Rapid spread of the disease within the epidemic regions, coupled with migration of infected persons, has underscored the need for rapid, robust and inexpensive diagnostic tools and therapeutics.”

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. The Population Council and its partners announced the launch of the first clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of a male contraceptive gel—an innovation that could advance contraception and bring more equality to the burden of family planning, which is largely borne by women. The gel, known as NES/T, is a novel, reversible contraceptive composed of a progestin hormone used for female contraception and testosterone. The gel is designed to be applied daily and absorbed through the skin on the upper arms and shoulders. The phase 2b trial, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, will test the product for pregnancy prevention among more than 400 couples. Should NES/T prove effective, it would be the first user-controlled method for contraception for men since the condom. Last Monday, South African drug maker Aspen Pharmacare launched a triple-antiretroviral (ARV) combination tablet for the treatment of HIV in South Africa—a country which accounts for 19 percent of the global burden of people living with HIV and 15 percent of new infections. The new medicine, known as Emdolten, is taken once daily and contains dolutegravir, an antiretroviral medication that counters the drug resistance that often develops with older HIV treatments, along with lamivudine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. In May, the South Africa Regulatory Authority and the European Medicines Agency issued a warning advising doctors not to prescribe dolutegravir to women seeking to becoming pregnant following cases of birth defects in a study; however, Aspen Pharmacare stated that using dolutegravir is safe for men, women not of child-bearing age, and child-bearing women using contraceptives, which account for approximately 70 percent of HIV patients. Researchers have developed a way to freeze-dry an inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) so that it can be stored at elevated temperatures, up to 40°C, for four weeks and then dissolved for use without losing its potency—potentially offering a new tool to eradicate the disease. While existing oral vaccines have led to polio’s elimination in many countries, these oral vaccines contain a weakened live virus, which can cause paralysis in rare cases. Thus, there has been push to use IPVs, which contain dead strains of the virus. Although IPVs have already been introduced in many countries, their widespread use is inhibited by their sensitivity to temperatures above and below approximately 4°C (39.2°F).