HMS To Increase Vaccine Access

Upholding a commitment the University made earlier this year to support developing nations by providing new technologies, the Harvard Technology Development Office and a microbiology researcher have agreed to help distribute novel vaccine-production techniques to communities in need.

John J. Mekalanos, chair of the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, developed a cheaper, faster technique for manufacturing conjugate vaccines, which protect against multiple diseases caused by bacteria such as pneumococcus, which can cause everything from ear infections to pneumonia.

The vaccines’ capacity to protect against a variety of diseases at once makes them particularly valuable in developing parts of the world.

The only such vaccine currently available to fight these diseases—Prevnar, produced by the pharmaceutical company Wyeth—remains too costly for the developing nations that are most affected. According to Mekalanos, the new technique is inexpensive enough to be used even in poor countries.

The Morningside Group, a Chinese company, holds the distribution rights for the new vaccine. Harvard has retained the right to license the vaccine’s production to government agencies and not-for-profit organizations that distribute the vaccine in developing countries with per capita annual incomes of less than $1,000.

According to Mekalanos, he is cooperating with Morningside to construct a new research center and conduct clinical trials in China, where the new product can be released more quickly than in Europe or the U.S. After establishing the legitimacy of the vaccine, they then hope to branch out to Europe and the U.S.

Mekelanos said he plans to conduct clinical trials within the next two years and have the product on shelves within five years.

A patent and licensing policy issued in March by Harvard and 10 other research universities, titled “In the Public Interest: Nine Points to Consider in Licensing University Technology,” states the institutions’ intention to share new research and technology with nonprofit organizations and developing nations.