Past activities & Achievements

GALVmed has conducted a limited programme of work on Brucella abortus in the past which related to antimicrobial therapy. The programme was unsuccessful.

Overview and Objectives

Launched in 2016, the Brucellosis Vaccine Prize competition is a 12-year vaccine development initiative adopting an entirely new funding approach through the provision of monetary prizes on a pay-for-results basis as incentives for product development. This US $30 million competition is funded by AgResults, a collaboration between the Australian, Canadian, UK and US governments, as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and is implemented by GALVmed. It is the first competition of its kind in animal health research and will reward organisations which develop and register a vaccine for Brucella melitensis that is safe and effective for use in sheep or goats and suitable for use by the small-scale livestock sector across the limited and middle-income countries.

Programme Activities

The competition is running in 3 phases with prize awards available at the end of each phase to reward organisations which meet the milestone requirements of each phase.

1. Phase 1 (application): Almost 40 organisations applied to the competition of which 20 of the proposed development programmes were accepted into Phase 2, with each of the 10 best proposals receiving a US $100,000 Milestone 1 prize.
2. Phase 2 (establishing proof of principle): During this phase, organisations must establish proof of principle of the safety and efficacy of their vaccine candidate in target animals. In addition, they must demonstrate a scalable process for commercial production. Each of the first 4 organisations to meet all the defined criteria will be eligible for a US $1 million prize.
3. Phase 3 (registration): Final development work will be required to ensure that an organisation’s vaccine meets the minimum viable product profile set out in the competition rules. The first organisation to register a vaccine meeting all these requirements in the EU, US, Japan, Australia, Canada or UK will be awarded the grand prize of US $20 million.

Currently, more than half of the organisations which met the requirements of Phase 1 and hence were entitled to progress into Phase 2, in 2017, continue to progress their development programmes towards achievement of Milestone 2.

The competition is still open to new applications.

More details can be found on the Brucellosis Vaccine Prize website.

Past activities & Achievements

A past programme with AU PANVAC in Ethiopia aimed to improve the overall volume of the existing inactivated CCPP vaccines on the market through improvements in production yield and quantification assays. The product development effort for CCPP has focused on a novel live vaccine approach, which could eventually be included in a combination vaccine for other goat diseases.

Overview and Objectives

Multi-valent vaccines offer pragmatic and cost-effective disease control tools for the small-scale livestock keeper. GALVmed is working with a commercial partner to develop a Small Ruminant Systemic Multivalent Vaccine addressing several major small ruminant diseases (CCPP, SGP, PPR), in a single combination vaccine. This product will offer considerable scope in expanding vaccine coverage for key small ruminant diseases in affected regions. The multi-valent approach will maximise disease coverage through distribution networks operating effective cold chains. It is believed that the utility and cost effectiveness (likely to be substantially cheaper than the constituent monovalent vaccines) of the product will result in buoyant small-scale demand.

Programme Activities

Working with a commercial partner, GALVmed is working on a multivalent vaccine addressing CCPP, SGP and PPR.  This project has completed initial process and formulation development and has entered full development with dossier submission scheduled for early 2023. 

Past activities & Achievements

The multivalent vaccine for PPR and SGP in sheep and goats, developed by GALVmed’s commercial partner MCI Sante Animale in Morocco, is a convincing example of the advantages of combining protection. The two diseases affect many of the same animals in the same regions, and are not, in fact, easy to distinguish. Many farmers vaccinate against the more frequently occurring SGP, but not against the less common, but more deadly, PPR. By organising market priming and acceptability trials in three African countries, however, GALVmed has been able to show that small-scale livestock keepers are willing to purchase a combination vaccine that is cheaper than vaccinating against each disease separately. Commercial sales of the multivalent vaccine during these licensed trials – which were almost 7 million doses by the end of 2017 – are a promising step towards the long-sought control and eradication of both diseases.

Our work with a British biotechnology company Arecor, which specialises in liquid formulation for therapeutic protein stabilisation technologies, has identified a novel liquid formulation that potentially stabilises PPR and SGP vaccine strains, currently in long-term stability studies. This development is timely given the expected global eradication scheme for PPR where ready-to-use vaccines will have real benefit.

GALVmed has worked closely with AU PANVAC to develop thermotolerance criteria for PPR vaccines. The aim of this work has been to provide manufacturers of PPR vaccines with guidance on pragmatic thermotolerance requirements against which AU PANVAC will be able to assess PPR vaccine batches as part of their role in testing and issuing Vaccine Test Certificates.

Overview and Objectives

GALVmed has two projects for the development of further combination vaccines for small ruminants that incorporate antigen that will offer protection against sheep and goat poxvirus infection. One of these projects is with a commercial vaccine manufacturer in India to develop a bivalent PPR/SGP vaccine that will replicate what has been achieved in Africa previously but in this case the virus strains used are specific for the Indian market.

Multi-valent vaccines offer pragmatic and cost-effective disease control tools for the small-scale livestock keeper. GALVmed has a second project incorporating SGP antigen with a second commercial partner to develop a Small Ruminant Systemic Multivalent Vaccine addressing several major small ruminant diseases (CCPP, SGP, PPR), in a single combination vaccine. This product will offer considerable scope in expanding vaccine coverage for key small ruminant diseases in affected regions. The multi-valent approach will maximise disease coverage through distribution networks operating effective cold chains. It is believed that the utility and cost effectiveness (likely to be substantially cheaper than the constituent monovalent vaccines) of the product will result in buoyant small-scale demand

SGP Programme Activities

The bivalent Indian PPR/SGP vaccine has successfully completed process and formulation development and most of the clinical program, with field trials remaining. Dossier submission is scheduled for early 2023. 

In collaboration with another commercial partner, GALVmed is working on a multivalent vaccine addressing CCPP, SGP and PPR.  This project has completed initial process and formulation development and has entered full development with dossier submission scheduled for early 2023. 

PPR Programme Activities

The bivalent Indian PPR/SGP vaccine has successfully completed process and formulation development and most of the clinical program, with field trials remaining. Dossier submission is scheduled for early 2023. 

In collaboration with another commercial partner, GALVmed is working on a multivalent vaccine addressing CCPP, SGP and PPR.  This project has completed initial process and formulation development and has entered full development with dossier submission scheduled for early 2023. 

The negatively-marked PPR vaccine has recently entered development phase with a commercial partner with process and formulation development currently underway. 

Past activities & Achievements

Historically, GALVmed has not had a funded project on small ruminant reproductive pathogens.

Several bacterial pathogens cause abortion or fertility reduction in ruminants, and some may also infect humans (zoonotic diseases). The Small Ruminant Reproductive Multivalent Vaccine is aiming to provide an innovative approach to countering the significant reproductive losses due to infectious agents in the small-scale livestock keeper setting. The growing importance of small ruminants (including small-scale dairy goat systems) in small-scale agriculture points towards this vaccine being a valued farming input. The target geographies for the vaccine are East Africa, West Africa and Southern Asia.

Overview and Objectives

Multi-valent vaccines offer pragmatic and cost-effective disease control tools for the small-scale livestock keeper. GALVmed is working with a commercial vaccine manufacturer to develop a Multivalent Reproductive Vaccine addressing several major small ruminant diseases (Q Fever, C abortus, PPR, B melitensis) in a single combination vaccine, or a limited number of concurrently administered vaccines. This product will offer considerable scope in expanding vaccine coverage for key small ruminant diseases in affected regions. The multi-valent approach will maximisze disease coverage through distribution networks operating effective cold chains. It is believed that the utility and cost effectiveness (likely to be substantially cheaper than the constituent monovalent vaccines) of the product will result in buoyant small-scale demand. The syndromic approach recognises the marked absence of differential diagnosis in many LMICs settings.