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Between 1995 and 2004 researchers at Imperial College developed a T cell peptide allergy vaccine in an attempt to improve the quality of life of millions of allergy sufferers worldwide. A spin-out company (Circassia Ltd) was founded and subsequently sold to Circassia Holdings Ltd, a clinical-stage specialty biopharmaceutical company based in Oxford, UK. Circassia Holdings Ltd has raised £98 million of funding since 2008 and has developed a pipeline of products to treat common allergies. In October 2012 the lead product ToleroMune® Cat entered a phase III clinical study involving 85 clinical sites across the USA, Canada and Europe and enrolling 1186 patients in the largest single field study ever undertaken in immunotherapy. Circassia currently employs 25 highly skilled people in-house with an outsourced business model giving employment to an estimated further 200 people.
LSHTM researchers have developed four computer models to help decision-makers make evidence-based choices about new vaccines and vaccine schedules. These models analyse the public health impact and cost-effectiveness of different options under different assumptions and scenarios on a country-by-country basis. They are used by national immunisation managers and key decision-makers, international committees and partner organisations (e.g. the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). LSHTM's researchers have built on this research for WHO, informing global recommendations on vaccine timing and schedules.
Research at LSHTM has been central to the introduction of the Hib vaccine in developing countries. School staff were involved in the 1990s Gambia Hib vaccine trial, which demonstrated the impact of Hib vaccine on pneumonia. Through their work on the subsequent Hib Initiative, their research was instrumental in speeding up evidence-based decision-making for Hib vaccine introduction in a number of countries, mainly in Asia and Africa. The project has been an outstanding success, with Hib vaccine now introduced into 71 of the 73 countries eligible for GAVI Alliance support.
Research performed by the University of Oxford has led to increased protection against meningococcal meningitis, through childhood immunisation in the UK and internationally. Around 600,000 infants each year receive meningococcal vaccines, which prevent up to 1,000 cases of meningitis per annum. Research into the immune responses to polysaccharide conjugate vaccines has changed policy by leading to the introduction of new meningococcal C vaccines in early childhood and booster vaccination in adolescents. Oxford University research has also led to the planned use of vaccines against serogroup B meningococcal disease, which have been licensed and recommended for the prevention of disease in high-risk individuals, and broader use is under consideration.
Research conducted by LSHTM has informed the delivery of a 30-year WHO strategy aimed at reducing the devastating burden of liver cancer in Africa and least developed countries in other regions. Studies evaluating the effectiveness of the Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study (GHIS) - the only randomised trial of a hepatitis B vaccine with a disease endpoint in Africa - have shaped current WHO policy recommendations for vaccinations against the virus, enabling WHO to advise against the need for a booster programme, and protecting governments in the less developed world from significant additional expenditure.
A trial of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) coordinated by Greenwood (LSHTM) and conducted in Gambian infants, showed a significant reduction in invasive pneumococcal disease, severe pneumonia, hospital admissions and deaths in vaccinated children. These results played an important role in encouraging WHO to recommend the introduction of a PCV into the routine immunisation programme of all countries with a high child mortality. Fifty-one GAVI eligible countries have now introduced, or made a commitment to introduce, a PCV into their routine infant immunisation programme with the consequent saving of many young lives.
Research by the Institute of Aquaculture has made a significant contribution to the development of effective fish vaccines, some of which have been commercialised and are used widely within the aquaculture industry. The majority of farmed fish in the UK are vaccinated (44 million salmon and 7.5 million rainbow trout in 2012 alone) with vaccines developed at Stirling, resulting in vast improvements in survival and fish health, and a sustained minimal use in antibiotics through mass vaccination. Vaccines have been developed for all the major farmed species in Europe, and recently the first vaccine for Pangasius catfish in Vietnam (>2 million tonne).
Research on novel statistical methods for disease surveillance and influenza vaccine effectiveness has led to the development of a suite of automatic systems for detecting outbreaks of infectious diseases at Health Protection Scotland (HPS). This work has improved the public health response and helped to reduce costs in Scotland and also in the wider UK and EU by providing real-time early warning of disease outbreaks and timely estimates of the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine. This research, commissioned by the Scottish Government, through HPS, and also the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the European Centres for Disease Control (ECDC), but used in a wider context by many others, formed the basis for the HPS response to the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic and monitoring of the effects of Influenza Vaccines.
A programme of work undertaken jointly between the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH) Vaccine Evaluation Laboratory headed by Professor David Goldblatt and the Health Protection Agency (now Public Health England [PHE]) led by Professor Liz Miller, has led directly to the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) into the UK infant immunisation schedule. These vaccines have reduced the burden of invasive disease in the UK saving many lives and reducing morbidity from these devastating infections. This work has also provided the evidence for other countries to introduce PCV with fewer than the originally recommended doses, thus improving cost effectiveness and hastening the implementation of these vaccines worldwide. Goldblatt has also contributed to a WHO programme to roll out PCV in developing countries; by July 2013 this programme had vaccinated around 10 million children.
Clinical Trials undertaken by the Oxford Vaccine Group led to the recommended immunisation of three million UK children during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. This research was also used to inform World Health Organization (WHO) global policy. The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, or "Swine Flu", was first identified in April 2009 and declared a pandemic by the WHO in June 2009. After acquiring two novel flu vaccines for the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, the UK government approached the Oxford Vaccine Group to provide paediatric data on the safety of each vaccine. Rapidly recruiting 943 children to the study, the Group delivered essential data to the Department of Health prior to the onset of the winter influenza season. In August 2010, the WHO declared the H1N1 pandemic over.