17-18 October 2011, Madrid, Spain

TBVI, together with the University of Zaragoza and Fundación Ramón Areces, will organise an international symposium on 17-18 October in Madrid. This symposium will feature world leading scientists in the field of investigation of host-pathogen interactions and new vaccines against TB, to present to the scientific community their efforts and the results of the latest research in vaccines against TB. The complete programme and a link to register can be found here.

24-27 March 2013, Kramer Building, University of Cape Town, South Africa

The Third Global Forum on TB Vaccines, organised to discuss progress on TB vaccine development, will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 24-27 March 2013, under the auspices of the Stop TB Partnership Working Group on New TB Vaccines. Co-ordinated by the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) and Aeras, the event will be hosted for the first time on the African continent, where TB disease rates are amongst the highest in the world.

Hundreds of researchers worldwide are working on the development of new TB vaccines. Much progress has been made in the past decade, and there is hope that a new TB vaccine may be on the market by 2020. Following on the successful and productive 2nd Global Forum on TB Vaccines held in Tallinn, Estonia in 2010, the Third Global Forum on TB Vaccines will provide an opportunity for researchers, advocates and policy makers to review progress made, identify key issues and priorities to advance and accelerate TB vaccine research, and lay the groundwork for licensure and uptake of new TB vaccines. Read more about the Conference Topics

TB vaccine research is moving forward steadily. We are seeing researchers within TBVI’s network progress towards new, safer and more effective vaccines against tuberculosis. In 2010, several vaccine candidates advanced to a subsequent phase in their development. For TBVI as an organisation, 2010 was also an important year. We became a fully independent organisation, completed the formation of our governance board and introduced a new funding model.

Our new annual report gives you an overview of the highlights, challenges and milestones that we came across in 2010. TBVI is confident that a new tuberculosis vaccine can be available within a decade. For this to be successfully realised, however, both political support and innovative investment remain crucial.
If you would like to receive a hard copy of our annual report, please send a request to info@tbvi.eu. Here you can read the digital version on our website.

The MTBVAC01 vaccine candidate, developed to protect people against tuberculosis, will start Phase I clinical trials early in 2012. This was announced by the Spanish biopharmaceutical company Biofabri in May. The candidate was developed by the University of Zaragoza in Spain and is part of the international portfolio of TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI).

During a press conference Biofabri’s CEO Esteban Rodriguez explained that the first batch of the vaccine is now available for toxicity studies. After the results of these studies have been assessed by the European Medicines Agency, responsible for accrediting and authorising, the candidate will move to Phase I of clinical trials in humans. Phase I studies are conducted in small groups of healthy adults to check if the new vaccine can be given without any serious side effects or reaction and to verify that it produces a good immune response. If the results are positive the vaccine candidate will move on to Phase II. Read more

The coming months, TBVI will contribute to several international meetings:

1. 5th International VPM Days “Translational Medicine: Current Concepts and Beyond”, 1-2 September, Hannover, Germany. TBVI’s director Jelle Thole will speak about ‘Research and Development of New TB Vaccines’.

2. 6th Conference on Global Health and Vaccination Research, 12-13 September, Oslo, Norway. TBVI’s Vice President Joris Vandeputte will speak about ‘Paradigm shifts for new TB vaccines’.

3. Groningen Vaccination Days, 29-30 September, Groningen, The Netherlands, TBVI’s director Jelle Thole will speak about 'Developments of new tuberculosis vaccines'.

4. World Vaccine Congress, 10-13 October, Lyon, France. TBVI’s Vice President Joris Vandeputte will speak about ‘Enhancing research & development through innovative funding’.

5. Symposium New TB Vaccines for the Future, 17-18 October, Madrid, Spain. Several scientists from TBVI’s network will speak on this symposium, organised by TBVI, the University of Zaragoza and Fundación Ramón Areces.

6. World Health Summit, 23-26 October, Berlin, Germany. TBVI’s Vice President Joris Vandeputte will speak about ‘PDP model for new TB vaccines’.

7. 42st Union World Conference on Lung Health, 26-30 October, Lille, France. TBVI will host a booth together with Aeras, and co-organise a symposium together with Insitut Pasteur Lille and Aeras. TBVI’s director Jelle Thole and TBVI research partner Camille Locht of Institut Pasteur will be among the speakers of the symposium.

8. 12th annual general meeting DCVMN, 30 October – 2 November, Xiamen, China. Micha Roumiantzeff, member of TBVI’s Product Development Team, will represent TBVI as a speaker.
For more agenda items, please take a look at our website