Challenges and Opportunities While Developing a Group A Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine Within a Product Development Partnership: A Manufacturer's Perspective From the Serum Institute of India

Background. In 2002, the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) chose the Serum Institute of India, Ltd (SIIL), as its manufacturing partner to establish a product development partnership (PDP) with the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP). MVP was a collaboration between PATH and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop meningococcal conjugate vaccines for sub-Saharan Africa. Method. From the outset, SIIL recognized that a partnership with MVP carried some risk but also offered important opportunities for accessing new conjugate vaccine technology and know-how. Over 3 years, SIIL successfully accepted technology transfer for the group A meningococcal polysaccharide from SynCo Bio Partners and a conjugation method from the US Food and Drug Administration. Results. SIIL successfully scaled up production of a group A meningococcal conjugate vaccine that used SIIL tetanus toxoid as the carrier protein. Phase 1 studies began in India in 2005, followed by phase 2/3 studies in Africa and India. A regulatory dossier was submitted to the Indian authorities in April 2009 and WHO in September 2009. Export license was granted in December 2009, and WHO prequalification was obtained in June 2010. Vaccine was introduced at public scale in Burkina Faso that December. The group A meningococcal conjugate vaccine was named MenAfriVac, and is the first internationally qualified vaccine developed outside of big pharma. Conclusions. The project proved to be a sound investment for SIIL and is a concrete example of the potential for PDPs to provide needed products for resource-poor countries.