The collaboration will lead to the development of optimal combination of HIV-specific antibodies and ensure that cost is not a barrier to access
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and Serum Institute of India, a global vaccine manufacturer, recently announced a strategic partnership to develop and manufacture affordable and accessible monoclonal antibody products for HIV and other global health challenges.
“IAVI is committed to translating scientific innovation into public health solutions, and we are collaborating with Serum Institute to enable global access to broadly neutralising monoclonal antibodies (bNAbs) against HIV, if they are proven effective at preventing HIV infection. Through this partnership, we will work to pioneer a viable and sustainable pathway toward accessible, low-cost, antibody-based products for HIV, which if successful, may also be applied more broadly to innovative monoclonal antibody therapeutics targeting other disease areas,” said Mark Feinberg, President and CEO, IAVI.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India said, “Monoclonal antibodies are providing significant therapeutic benefit in the treatment of a growing number of serious diseases. However, due to their high cost, the availability of current products is limited to wealthier countries. In light of the demonstrated efficacy of monoclonal antibodies and their future promise as globally relevant tools for disease treatment and prevention, this must change. Serum Institute is committed to developing high quality, affordable, monoclonal antibodies with the potential to treat and prevent HIV and other diseases in India and across the globe.”
In recent years, researchers, including those at IAVI, have identified hundreds of bNAbs that are both potent and broadly cross reactive against the majority of HIV variants circulating globally. Some of these bNAbs are now being explored for their potential ability to prevent, treat, and cure HIV infection.
The results of the first study of the efficacy of a bNAb for prevention of HIV infection are expected within the next two years, and additional bNAb combinations are advancing toward efficacy testing. It is still unknown whether antibody prophylaxis will be effective in blocking HIV infection, but defining a pathway to access at the outset will hasten the introduction of new products, should they work.
There is a pressing need to develop a sustainable model to ensure that bNAb products can be widely available and affordable to protect individuals at high risk of HIV infection in low-income countries where HIV incidence is highest.
IAVI and its partners are pursuing the development of optimised versions and combinations of some of the most promising bNAbs as a new HIV prevention approach. This includes working with scientific collaborators to rapidly select and optimize a combination of the most potent antibodies available. The partnership between IAVI and Serum Institute will focus on developing large-scale, low-cost manufacturing processes to produce these optimised antibodies, evaluate them in clinical trials, and, if effective, register and commercialise an antibody-based HIV prevention product globally.
New HIV prevention methods are desperately needed, as the rate of new infections has not declined significantly in more than a decade.
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