The Challenges of a Vaccine-Only Strategy for Pandemic Preparedness
Rajesh Gupta , Vice President, Global Health Portfolio
While vaccines are incredible tools to combat infectious disease and are necessary for pandemic preparedness and response, betting on a vaccine-only strategy is insufficient. In our commentary in Science Translational Medicine, we offer our perspective on why monoclonal antibodies are essential to a multi-pronged pandemic preparedness plan and, when the next global health emergency happens, we need multiple tools readily available in our arsenal to respond to it.
Like any good investment portfolio, our infectious disease toolbox needs to have a diversity of assets.?Highly potent, neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can offer the advantage of immediate protection while also having a historically been shown to have a relatively safe profile. They also provide alternative prophylactic options for people who are immunocompromised and may not be able to generate a sufficient immune response, are allergic to certain vaccine components, or are vaccine hesitant.?In addition, some mAbs can be dual purpose and have potential applications for both treatment as well as prevention.?
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With currently available technology, we can identify a library of broad, highly potent mAbs against a range of potential pathogens. And developing, manufacturing, and storing mAbs in advance, means we could have an off-the-shelf option ready to deploy against infectious diseases that have a high probability of becoming the next outbreak/pandemic.
I – like my peers in the infectious disease space – have no desire to see the world struggle through another pandemic.?Catching and containing an outbreak early is the best strategy for everyone and mAbs are a critical component of helping being able to do that. If the next outbreak does spiral into a pandemic, mAbs are a potential tool in quickly and effectively tackling it. Only with a broad portfolio of technologies with the highest probability to succeed and the infrastructure ready to deploy them around the world can we prevent history from repeating itself.