Which roads lead to access? A global landscape of six COVID-19 vaccine innovation models
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Alonso Ruiz A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10964709 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Development COVID-19 vaccines in a record time has been an unprecedented global scientific achievement. However, the world has failed to ensure equitable access to what should have been a global public good. What options remain available to African countries to ensure immunization of their populations and ultimately overcome the pandemic?
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Project description:BackgroundThere is growing interest in pharmaceutical innovation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), but information on existing activities, capacities, and outcomes is scarce. We mapped available data at the global level, and studied the national pharmaceutical innovation systems of Bangladesh and Colombia to shed light on pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) in the Global South, including challenges and prospects, to help fill existing knowledge gaps.MethodsWe gathered and analyzed data from three types of sources: literature, semi-structured interviews with key informants, and publicly available data on R&D funding, R&D scientific capacity measured by human resources, and clinical trial activities.ResultsPharmaceutical R&D activities are occurring in many LMICs, but 16 countries have emerged as frontrunners. Investment in R&D in LMICs has increased in the past decade, particularly from middle-income countries (MICs). Capacity is also growing, with an increase in the number of research organizations and the amount of funding available from external sources. The total number of clinical trials and the proportion of trials in LMICs increased markedly, and there is also growing activity in the earlier, more innovative and riskier Phase 1 and 2 trials. Non-commercial entities comprise the majority of clinical trial funders and sponsors in LMICs. Finally, investments have borne fruit, as indicated by a number of innovative medicines developed in LMICs. The Bangladesh and Colombia country studies showed that there is still a need for both targeted R&D policies to strengthen capacities in the pharmaceutical sector, and more government support to overcome the challenges of a lack of funding and coordination among different actors.ConclusionsBy triangulating between the data sources, it was possible to paint a broad picture of who was involved in pharmaceutical R&D in LMICs, in which particular countries, for which diseases, in which R&D phases, and with what results-as well as how these trends have changed over time. Prioritizing pharmaceutical R&D is an important strategy for better meeting health needs. The trendlines are promising, but focused attention is still needed to realize the potential for greater innovation in the Global South.
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Project description:In light of their quick development and low risk, mRNA vaccines are gradually replacing traditional vaccines. In order to characterize the patent landscape of mRNA vaccines, this study collated mRNA vaccine-related applications that have been registered since 1962. Accordingly, the 1852 patent families were discussed in relation to their temporal distribution, geographic scope, organizational assignees, and co-patenting activities. mRNA vaccines were shown to demonstrate promise in infectious disease, cancer immunotherapy, and allergic disease, with a focus on lipid nanoparticles. Notably, these vaccines are being developed against a backdrop of fierce industrial competition and intensive collaboration with a rise in applications. The findings of this study highlighted cutting-edge inventions, key players, and collaboration dynamics among institutions. By understanding the landscape of mRNA vaccine patents, researchers and those in industry may better comprehend the latest trends in this area, which may also assist relevant decision-making by academics, government officials, and industrial leaders.
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Project description:Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by abnormal resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) in various neural networks and especially in default-mode network (DMN). However, inconsistent findings, i.e., increased and decreased DMN rsFC, have been reported, which raise the question for the source of DMN changes in MDD. Testing whether the DMN abnormalities in MDD can be traced to either a local, i.e., intra-network, or a global, i.e., inter-network, source, we conducted a novel sequence of rsFC analyses, i.e., global FC, intra-network FC, and inter-network FC. Moreover, all analyses were conducted without global signal regression (non-GSR) and with GSR in order to identify the impact of specifically the global component of functional connectivity on within-network functional connectivity within specifically the DMN. In MDD our findings demonstrate (i) increased representation of global signal correlation (GSCORR) in DMN regions, as confirmed independently by degree of centrality (DC) and by an independent DMN template, (ii) increased within-network DMN rsFC, (iii) highly increased inter-network rsFC of both lower- and higher order non-DMN networks with DMN, (iv) high accuracy in classifying MDD vs. healthy subjects by using GSCORR as predictor. Further supporting the global, i.e., non-DMN source of within-network rsFC of the DMN, all results were obtained only when including the global signal, i.e., non-GSR, but not when conducting GSR. Together, we show for the first time increased global signal representation within rsFC of DMN as stemming from inter-network sources as distinguished from local sources, i.e., within- or intra-DMN.
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Project description:The idea that there is some sort of abnormality in dopamine (DA) signalling is one of the more enduring hypotheses in schizophrenia research. Opinion leaders have published recent perspectives on the aetiology of this disorder with provocative titles such as 'Risk factors for schizophrenia--all roads lead to dopamine' or 'The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia--the final common pathway'. Perhaps, the other most enduring idea about schizophrenia is that it is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Those of us that model schizophrenia developmental risk-factor epidemiology in animals in an attempt to understand how this may translate to abnormal brain function have consistently shown that as adults these animals display behavioural, cognitive and pharmacological abnormalities consistent with aberrant DA signalling. The burning question remains how can in utero exposure to specific (environmental) insults induce persistent abnormalities in DA signalling in the adult? In this review, we summarize convergent evidence from two well-described developmental animal models, namely maternal immune activation and developmental vitamin D deficiency that begin to address this question. The adult offspring resulting from these two models consistently reveal locomotor abnormalities in response to DA-releasing or -blocking drugs. Additionally, as adults these animals have DA-related attentional and/or sensorimotor gating deficits. These findings are consistent with many other developmental animal models. However, the authors of this perspective have recently refocused their attention on very early aspects of DA ontogeny and describe reductions in genes that induce or specify dopaminergic phenotype in the embryonic brain and early changes in DA turnover suggesting that the origins of these behavioural abnormalities in adults may be traced to early alterations in DA ontogeny. Whether the convergent findings from these two models can be extended to other developmental animal models for this disease is at present unknown as such early brain alterations are rarely examined. Although it is premature to conclude that such mechanisms could be operating in other developmental animal models for schizophrenia, our convergent data have led us to propose that rather than all roads leading to DA, perhaps, this may be where they start.
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Project description:During the COVID-19 epidemic, national innovation faced the challenges of high-risk research and development and intensified trade competition. How to allocate resources reasonably to promote national innovation has become a problem that must be solved. Based on the global innovation index (GII) framework, this study analyzes the influence of national innovation input elements (such as human capital resources, infrastructure, business maturity, etc.) on innovation output from the perspective of configuration, combining with the necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis (FSQCA). The research results show that:(1) A single innovation input constitutes the necessary condition and serves as a bottleneck for high innovation output;(2) ITT, HCR, IFT, MS and BS are all "multiple concurrent" and form different configurations, namely, two high-innovation and four nonhigh innovation configurations, that drive national innovation governance is characterized by "different roads leading to the same goals." (3) As innovation is limited by the income levels of various countries, there are obvious differences in innovation drive paths between high- and low-income countries. Moreover, the configuration of asymmetric relationships with low-innovation output that occurs in high-income countries has unique characteristics. In this study, the influence of the coupling of national innovation input elements on innovation output is explored.
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Project description:AbbreviationsCOVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019; SARS-CoV-2: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2; VLPs: Virus like particles; WHO: World Health Organization; E: Envelope; M: Membrane; S: Spike; N: Nucleocapsid; PRISMA: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses; FDA: Food and Drug Administration; LNP: lipid-nanoparticle; AZD1222: ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; BNT162b2: Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine; mRNA-1273: Moderna vaccine; Ad26.COV2.S: Johnson and Johnson - Janssen's vaccine; Gam-COVID-Vac: Sputnik Vaccine; NVX-CoV2373: Novavax vaccine with Matrix-M™ adjuvant.
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Project description: Not available
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