Neglected adult vaccines
Humanity's fight against infectious diseases is perhaps one of the world's most massive and challenging actions.
Compared with "curing the disease", "preventing the disease before it happens" is actually a better choice. The birth of vaccines has allowed human beings to seize the initiative in the fight against diseases and even changed the world.
Whether it is the immunization program that has been implemented since the birth of children, or the HPV vaccine for women and the herpes zoster vaccine for middle-aged and elderly people in recent years, they are committed to the continuous upgrading and breakthrough of medical biotechnology to avoid people suffering from diseases to the greatest extent, and even conquer and eliminate diseases.
But in reality, adult-oriented vaccination campaigns have not received the same importance and necessity as they do.
A set of data from Tencent Health Research on a sample of 12,411 adults showed that only 22 percent of people believe women need to be vaccinated; only 30 percent agree that the sooner they get the vaccine, the sooner they benefit; 27 percent don't know where the vaccine should be; 42 percent, 53 percent, and 63 percent, respectively, don't know that cervical cancer, pneumonia, and herpes zoster can be prevented by vaccines.
Behind these data reveals the lack of adult awareness of vaccines. Throughout the human life cycle, attention should be maintained to the prevention of disease, and vaccines are the most effective means of preventing and controlling infectious diseases. Vaccines are not only used to protect young children, but also for adults, especially middle-aged and elderly people whose immunity has decreased due to age.
Feng Bixia, Vice President of GlaxoSmithKline (hereinafter referred to as "GSK") and head of vaccine business in China, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of GSK's vaccine business, hoping to enhance public awareness and awareness of disease prevention and vaccination through continuous efforts and cooperation with all parties.
In China, GSK's original intention of "basing on China, joining hands with China, and serving China" has never changed. Since the introduction of the first hepatitis A vaccine in 1996, GSK has filled the gap in China by introducing a series of innovative vaccines and helped the construction of Public Health in China.
At present, the three vaccines listed by GSK in China are: the Galen Prize, which has won the Nobel Prize of the "Nobel Prize of the Medical Community" three times, the only recombinant herpes zoster vaccine that has been listed in China for adults aged 50 years and above, the popular vaccine for women aged 9 to 45 years - bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) AS04 adjuvant adsorption vaccine Cirishi, and the only imported hepatitis B vaccine in China with 35 years of experience in the world.
In this action of promoting adult vaccines and raising value awareness, GSK has never been absent and has been promoting.
Vaccination is considered by the WHO to be the "most worthwhile investment", the most efficient and effective way to control the cost of the health care system. GSK actively responds to the requirements of "prevention first, prevention and control combined" in "Healthy China 2030", based on pharmaceutical innovation, strives to build a "medical and defense integration" health management ecology, and through joint actions with multiple organizations in China, continuously accelerates the pace of innovative product introduction, expands product portfolio, improves vaccination experience, and provides Chinese families with a whole population, full life cycle health protection program. At the same time, we will work with partners from all walks of life such as government agencies to continuously disseminate the value of adult vaccines, enhance the public's correct understanding of vaccines, and the accessibility of high-quality vaccine resources.
From 2019 to 2021, GSK supports the 2019-2030 Healthy China Action - Youth Health Education Public Welfare Project, guided by the National Health Commission and the National Bureau for Disease Control and Prevention, and sponsored by the China Health Promotion Foundation (CHPF), to carry out knowledge update and education activities on the theme of disease prevention and control for vaccinators and school doctors across the country to promote the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. This year, GSK public welfare supported the "Healthy China Prevention First - 2021 People's Health Community Middle-aged and Elderly Health Promotion Series Activities" sponsored by People's Network people's health, walked into 10 urban communities across the country, relied on community health service centers, linked local disease control and doctor experts, and carried out health education activities related to disease prevention, vaccination, chronic disease management and other health education activities, helping to improve the awareness of disease prevention among community residents, especially middle-aged and elderly people.
Health challenges and vaccine milestones
Infectious diseases are enemies lurking in the dark, and people often can't see them, but once the enemies emerge, they will affect society with lightning speed. Whether it is a chronic infectious disease that has long endangered human health or a new crown epidemic that has ravaged the world, it is still a global health challenge.
Every time a sudden infectious challenge hits, the value of vaccines is further magnified. Behind the advent of each vaccine, there are countless painstaking efforts and wisdom of scientists. Facing the challenges of disease, GSK has overcome one health problem after another with science as its support and innovation and research and development as its weapon, creating many milestones in the field of vaccines.
The difficulties in this can be seen from the herpes zoster vaccine, HPV vaccine and hepatitis B vaccine, which are known as the "three musketeers" of adult vaccines, which can be seen in the process of taking root in China:
Among them, the herpes zoster vaccine was included in the first batch of 48 clinically urgent new drugs in the country in 2018, and was approved by the State Drug Administration of China in 2019 for the prevention of shingles in adults aged 50 and above. Feng Bixia was very emotional about this, "The herpes zoster vaccine market is GSK from scratch, little by little. For a long time, The understanding of the elderly in China, whether it is shingles disease or vaccines, has always been weak, and once suffering from shingles, the pain caused by this disease can be described as 'suffering', and many patients describe it as more painful than childbirth. ”
△ The picture is from Visual China
"The promotion of adult vaccines is imperative, and the value of vaccines is not only to form long-term protection for the body, away from illness, but also to save potential medical expenses, which is of great significance to individuals, families and society." Feng Bixia said.
In November 2021, the authoritative medical journal "The Lancet" published an article confirming the HPV vaccine Cyrus in the use of the UK immunization programme to effectively prevent the occurrence of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions, which is the first direct evidence of Cyrel's effective prevention of cervical cancer prevention, the study found that girls aged 12-13 years after vaccination of Cyrel, cervical cancer and CIN3 incidence is 87% and 97% lower than the unvaccinated group, England since 2008 after the inclusion of Cyrest in the immunization programme, Helped virtually eliminate cervical cancer in women born since September 1, 1995.
GSK's hepatitis B vaccine was launched worldwide in 1986 and is the only imported hepatitis B vaccine with 35 years of global experience, registered as a single vaccine in 122 countries and regions around the world. Since its listing, more than one billion doses have been used.
Vaccine companies are in action
In the past two years, the new crown epidemic that has ravaged the world has brought the public health problem of "birds and birds hiding" to regain attention, and at a number of vaccine-related industry seminars, people from government agencies, academia and industry have lamented that the new crown epidemic has ushered in the opportunity for vaccine companies to show their strength.
As one of the world's largest vaccine suppliers, GSK has fully supported the fight against COVID-19 since the outbreak of COVID-19 and has announced a number of collaborations. In September 2020, Fortune magazine released the sixth annual "Changing the World" list, and GSK and other industry peers tied for the first place in the list for their joint fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The production process of vaccines is very complex, not only to determine the technical route of vaccines, but also to ensure the combination and quality of vaccine components to achieve the best immune response effect.
In general, there will be antigens in vaccines, compared with the use of antigen vaccines alone, the use of adjuvant systems composed of different adjuvants in some vaccines can enhance the immune response of vaccines, especially for the elderly and specific groups of immunocompromised people, the adjuvant system can also improve the quality of their immune response. The challenge of adjuvant research is to find the perfect match for adjuvant to provide an effective and safe formulation. As a leader in the development of innovative vaccines using different adjuvant systems, GSK has developed several very representative and differentiated vaccine products.
The use of adjuvants is particularly important in the event of a pandemic, which can reduce the amount of antigen required for each dose of vaccine, allowing more doses of vaccine to be produced to be delivered to more people, which is important for improving the global vaccine supply.
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, relying on the advantages of science, technology, portfolio and resources, GSK has announced cooperation with the Epidemic Prevention Innovation Alliance (CEPI), Sanofi, Medicago, SK Bioscience, CureVac and other enterprises and institutions to jointly promote the global research and development of candidate vaccines and new drugs, and is committed to promoting and ensuring the accessibility of new crown vaccines to the greatest extent.
Recently, GSK and Quebec-based biopharmaceutical company Medicago announced that the efficacy and safety of the 2019 coronavirus plant-derived candidate vaccine with the addition of GSK pandemic adjuvants have achieved positive results in efficacy and safety in the Global Phase 3 placebo-controlled efficacy study.
According to the findings, covid-19 of any severity, including those caused by the globally circulating Delta variant, has a 75.3% efficacy and is well tolerated by the candidate vaccine, and there are no reports of relevant serious adverse events in the vaccine group, and a final registration declaration will be submitted to Health Canada soon.
In the future, GSK's existing pandemic adjuvants combined with Micago's plant-based vaccine technology are highly promising to become an effective vaccine option that can remain stable under refrigerated conditions and help people jointly cope with this global epidemic.
Hand in hand with global partners
Dealing with this huge epidemic is far from being something that a single company can accomplish, but requires companies of all links and different roles to work hand in hand.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, GSK has responded for the first time, fully supporting the fight against the epidemic and announcing a number of collaborations, including working with industry partners to develop a second-generation mRNA candidate vaccine to make it possible to respond to the COVID-19 variant strain; and a statement of intent with the COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan (COVAX) to ensure the equitable distribution of effective COVID-19 vaccines internationally.
In addition to providing adjuvants, GSK is also exploring the feasibility of vaccine technology strategies. The immediate focus is on rapidly advancing the development of a second-generation COVID-19 vaccine with CureVac and leveraging an optimized second-generation mRNA platform for further applications to deliver novel vaccines against a wide range of other pathogens.
The challenges posed by the COVID-19 variant continue, the third vaccination program has only just rolled out, and there are still great opportunities for the global vaccine market, but how to ensure accessibility and fairness is a problem.
GSK has been committed to making COVID-19 vaccines reach those who need them, ensuring fair global access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, such as equitable adjuvants, the inclusion of some R&D projects in COVAX, and the signing of the list of commitments by CEOs.
Looking at the world, GSK currently has 20 vaccines to protect the health of the whole population and the whole life cycle. As the spectrum of diseases changes, GSK continues to explore more possibilities in the field of vaccines and remains at the forefront of science. As of July 2021, GSK has 19 vaccine candidates in development, covering respiratory syncytial virus infection, meningitis, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis B treatment, novel coronavirus infection, Clostridium difficile infection and other areas. The successive marketing of these products will contribute to the control of infectious diseases worldwide.