Bangladesh must be ready to make its own vaccines
Bangladesh should take measures to reduce reliance on high-income countries for vaccines in the case of a future pandemic, said Prof Robin Shattock, a leading expert in vaccines and researcher at Imperial College London.
Shattock's team at Imperial is currently working on developing a new technology that will make vaccines cheaper in the near future. As part of their global collaboration to ensure vaccine equity through technology transfer, they've partnered with Incepta Vaccines Ltd, the first human-vaccine manufacturer in Bangladesh, to develop new vaccines that can prevent cervical cancer and diarrhoea caused by Shigella bacteria.
Visiting Bangladesh for his project with Incepta, Shattock said, "The disparity in vaccine access and infrastructure is a concern. So, it is crucial to ensure that Bangladesh, like any other low-income country, has the technology to produce vaccines for future pandemics."
For this, he said, the country can either implement the capacity to develop new vaccines or partner with global players like the World Health Organization to support clinical trials as independent investment can be costly.
Bangladesh's biotechnology industry is promising, with a high potential for growth. To expand the potential of the industry though, it will be important to invest in training and retain skilled workers from seeking careers overseas for higher salaries.
According to Shattock, Bangladesh's biotechnology industry is promising, with a high potential for growth.
"To expand the potential of the industry though, it will be important to invest in training and retain skilled workers from seeking careers overseas for higher salaries," he told The Daily Star.
Terming the government's Covid-19 vaccination campaign successful, he lauded the "mass participation across the country and the donation of a huge number of vaccines from the COVAX initiative."
Shattock's team at Imperial College London has also been working on developing new RNA-vaccine technology, to be made available in the next few years, which could potentially be much cheaper. "It is more potent, so one can use a lower dose -- perhaps tenfold lower than the current mRNA vaccines, which lowers the cost," he explained.
During the interview, Shattock -- who led Imperial's Covid-19 vaccine project -- also highlighted the lessons learnt from the pandemic: like the proven effectiveness of mRNA vaccine technology, which has the potential for countries to be better prepared in the case of another pandemic in the next two to five years.
"There will also be a higher chance of equal access then," he said. But for that, continuous advocacy and activism must continue regarding the inequity in access to vaccines between developing and developed countries. Shattock predicts that there will be more pandemics, due to the rise in global temperature, increasing density of populations, and disruption of natural habitats. He also highlighted some specific challenges for low-income countries like Bangladesh, adversely impacted by climate change and growing antibiotic resistance.
For example, climate change may lead to an increase in vector-borne infections such as malaria, dengue, and chikungunya. These diseases, attributed by WHO as "neglected tropical diseases", generally do not attract investment from large global pharmaceutical companies. The reasons for this lack of research and development include the geographical absence of these diseases in the West, which makes for low commercial incentives, along with scientific difficulties.
"As a scientist, I would say it's a really important issue in the global scientific community, and there should be significant investment in researching these neglected diseases," he added.
He also mentioned that vaccines can tackle antibiotic resistance. This could potentially be a solution for the future. "But it's not a magic bullet. So judicious use of antibiotics is clearly an important consideration," Shattock said.
Asked whether global organisations like the WHO possess a bias in making regulations harder for small companies from low-income countries, he said, "I think that's a difficult question, and it's too easy to have a simplistic answer."
"I think the WHO and the international regulatory system are getting much more familiar with working with low-income countries," he added.
Comments