The third meeting of WHO's Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee (PDVAC) was held in June 2016, with a remit to revisit the pathogen areas for which significant progress has occurred since recommendations from the 2015 meeting, as well as to consider new advances in the development of vaccines against other pathogens. Since the previous meeting, significant progress has been made with regulatory approvals of the first malaria and dengue vaccines, and the first phase III trials of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine candidate has started in the elderly and pregnant women. In addition, PDVAC has also supported vaccine development efforts against important emerging pathogens, including Middle Eastern Coronavirus (MERS CoV) and Zika virus. Trials of HIV and tuberculosis vaccine candidates are steadily progressing towards pivotal data points, and the leading norovirus vaccine candidate has entered a phase IIb efficacy study. WHO's Immunization, Vaccine and Biologicals (IVB) department is actively working in several pathogen areas on the recommendation of PDVAC, as well as continuing horizon scanning for advances in the development of vaccines that may benefit low and middle income countries (LMICs), such as the recent licensure of the enterovirus 71 (EV71) vaccine in China. Following on from discussions with WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization, PDVAC will also look beyond licensure and consider data needs for vaccine recommendation and implementation to reduce the delay between vaccine approval and vaccine impact.
Keywords: Bacterial; LMICs; PDVAC; Product development; SAGE; Vaccine; Viral.
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