This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the World Health Organization’s creation of the oral cholera vaccine (OCV) global stockpile, managed by the International Coordinating Group (ICG) to help prevent and control outbreaks of cholera. However, the current supply is not nearly sufficient to keep up with the needs of countries at risk, especially as the world faces an unprecedented surge of cholera outbreaks.

After a decade of the stockpile, new and enduring vaccine research questions remain: what changes to the current vaccines could improve public health impact? What are optimal vaccination schedules? What is the real-world effectiveness of OCV in different settings? To explore these questions and to gain a better understanding of the next generation of cholera vaccines in development, IVI hosted a Cholera Vaccine Research Day, inviting researchers from all over the world to share their work in progress in an informal setting.

The research day was organized into three sessions: 1) the vaccine pipeline, with updates from researchers and manufacturers from IVI, Harvard, EuBiologics, Bharat Biotech, University of Tokyo, Bavarian Nordic, and Biovac, who are all in various stages of vaccine development; 2) characterization of immune responses to natural infection and vaccination, with presentations on biomarker characterization of natural cholera infection, vaccination, and applied use; 3) optimizing vaccine use, with updates on work in progress to optimize vaccination schedules, estimate vaccine effectiveness in different settings, and measure impact.

Over 55 stakeholders attended Cholera Vaccine Research Day, both on-site and online, including vaccine researchers, global health funders, manufacturers, and representatives from countries affected by cholera. IVI hosted this research day ahead of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC)’s annual Working Group Meeting on Oral Cholera Vaccine, which was held at IVI’s headquarters in Seoul this October. GTFCC is a partnership of more than 50 institutions, including non-governmental organizations, academic units, and UN agencies that supports countries in implementing the Roadmap 2030, a global strategy for cholera control with a goal of reducing cholera deaths by 90%.

“It’s really exciting to have an open science day that looks at some of the developments and research questions that we need with cholera vaccine, especially just before the GTFCC working group meeting which is more around country experiences and operational challenges with OCV,” shares Dr. Duncan Steele, Deputy Director and Strategic Lead for Enteric Vaccines at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “I think it is especially great that this was held at IVI which has been an instrumental partner in the cholera vaccine space from the testing and evaluation of the very first cholera vaccines to the development of new vaccines that are part of the stockpile.”

To bridge the scientific presentations of the Cholera Vaccine Research Day and the more technical GTFCC meeting, the full group made a site visit to EuBiologics in Chuncheon, Korea, where Euvichol-Plus® OCV is produced. This vaccine was originally developed at IVI and technology transferred to EuBiologics in 2010, gaining WHO prequalification in 2017. Today, this vaccine makes up 90% of the global stockpile.

From October 12-13, the full group convened at IVI headquarters again for the GTFCC annual working group meeting to provide an opportunity for partners and countries to collaborate on OCV-related issues and to review progress on ongoing activities and OCV deployment.

To open the meeting, Dr. Julia Lynch, IVI’s Cholera Program Director, said: “Developing a cholera vaccine was the very first initiative IVI took up 25 years ago and led to—with the help of many partners—the availability of Shanchol and Euvichol, products that you are familiar with. So, considering our deep roots in cholera research and cholera vaccine development, we are happy to be hosting this GTFCC OCV working group meeting.”

by Aerie Em