IVI and Australia
Australian Leadership at IVI
Dr. Ian David Gust, University of Melbourne (2001-2005)
Sir Gustav J.V. Nossal, Australian Academy of Science, University of Melbourne (1997-2002)
Professor Michael F. Good, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, (2001-2006)
Dr. Ian David Gust, Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, (2007-2010)
Ongoing IVI-Australia Collaboration
Typhoid in Fiji – Vaccination & Elimination (TY-FIVE) consortium
A partnership between IVI, the Fijian Ministry of Health, the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (University of Melbourne), and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, TY-FIVE is conducting a pilot vaccine introduction of Bharat Biotech’s Typbar-TCV by vaccinating the entire population of the island of Vanua Levu (population around 132,000) to try to eliminate typhoid from the Northern Island of Fiji and strengthen Fiji’s current symptomatic typhoid surveillance system.
From 2021 to 2022, the Ty-FIVE team improved detection of typhoid cases and asymptomatic shedders through blood culture and contact tracing, trained all health facility personnel to ensure standardized processes, and began preparations for a mass vaccination campaign in collaboration with the Fijian Ministry of Health.
In 2023, the team successfully carried out the typhoid mass vaccination campaign for ten weeks from July to September, vaccinating nearly 70,000 individuals in the Northern Division.
Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium (SAVAC)
Established by IVI to facilitate the development of Group A Streptococcus (GAS) vaccines, SAVAC is building a Full Value of Vaccine Assessment (FVVA) for GAS vaccines, increasing the awareness of GAS vaccine development, and broadly identifying and filling R&D gaps for GAS vaccines, including advocacy, epidemiology/burden, pipeline, correlates, and funding. Australian SAVAC leadership:
- Andrew Steer, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
- Jonathan Carapetis, Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia
In November 2023, SAVAC 2.0 was launched, focusing on three workstreams: 1) preparing for vaccine clinical trials, which includes the establishment of a sentinel site network and conducting a data linkage study; 2) preparing industry stakeholders by engaging with developers and manufacturers; and 3) preparing non-industry stakeholders such as WHO and country-level policymakers to facilitate eventual vaccine introduction.
IVI leads the CAPTURA project, working to expand the volume of historical and current data on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial use (AMU) in 12 countries across South and Southeast Asia (including Indonesia, Timor Leste, and Papua New Guinea). By building a network of laboratories and pharmacies for data sharing and identifying human health facilities that are generating AMU and AMR data, CAPTURA is helping to both establish and expand surveillance in Asian countries while unifying their efforts.
Through its engagement with AMR stakeholders in CAPTURA priority countries, the project collected, digitized, analyzed, and disseminated findings of AMR data from 72 laboratories in seven countries, strengthening countries’ capacity in data sharing, analysis, and use. In 2023, the team published a supplement in Clinical Infectious Diseases, highlighting the findings and regional experience of the project.
In 2023, IVI was invited by the Fleming Fund to the second round of the Fleming Fund Regional Grants call, focusing on improving AMR data quality and use through CAPTURA II. This next phase started in October 2023 and will run until December 2025, aiming to support countries in Asia to improve the quality of AMR data and its use in policymaking.
Australia’s University of Melbourne is a CAPTURA II consortium partner.
Ongoing IVI Indo-Pacific Regional Programs
IVI is leading clinical trials with CEPI of SK Bioscience’s GBP510 Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Trials in six countries, including New Zealand.
IVI transferred the technology for its Vi-DT typhoid conjugate vaccine to Indonesia’s Biofarma and supported the clinical trials and licensure of the vaccine in Indonesia. WHO Prequalification is now pending.
Previous IVI-Australia Collaboration
AusAID Funding
From 2000 to 2005, AusAID provided Over $230,000AUD in funding across multiple IVI programs: capacity building in China and Viet Nam, the Diseases of the Most Impoverished (DOMI), and establishment of IVI’s vaccine development laboratories.
Supporting Independent Immunization and Vaccine Advisory Committees (SIVAC)
Australia’s National Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) on Immunization trained NITAG scientists from Indonesia, Nepal, and Vietnam in support of IVI’s SIVAC program (2011-2013).
Rotavirus Surveillance Capacity Building
Murdoch Children’s Research Center provided training to scientists from Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka in rotavirus detection, quality control, and quality assurance as part of IVI’s Rotavirus Program (2007).
Streptococcus pneumoniae Surveillance
In collaboration with Sydney Children’s Hospital, IVI conducted surveillance studies on pneumococcus in Australia, China, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Viet Nam (2005-2006).