Transforming Biomedical Research to Develop Effective TB Vaccines: The Next Ten Years

Abstract

The 2012 Strategic Blueprint for tuberculosis (TB) vaccines presents a cogent vision for developing and introducing safe and effective TB vaccines within a decade. This document offers a valuable reappraisal of how we can best move this critical area of research forward to help achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating tuberculosis worldwide. The new Blueprint builds on more than 10 years of exceptional progress in TB science and product development since the 2000 publication of the first Blueprint, which resulted from a workshop organized by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). For a research field that began to receive serious attention and commitment of substantial resources only in the mid1990s, remarkable gains have been achieved. The framework laid out in the original Blueprint for creating a sustainable infrastructure for the clinical development of candidate TB vaccines is updated in the current plan to reflect new knowledge gained from studying multiple vaccine candidates in preclinical studies and human clinical trials. This update will enable us to refine our approach and define research gaps that must be filled if we are to make licensure of new TB vaccines a reality. The NIH welcomes the publication of the 2012 Blueprint, and we look forward to continuing to work with the many committed scientists and our public and private partners in the global effort to control and ultimately end the global TB pandemic. TB control programs have led to a recent worldwide decline in the number of people falling ill and dying from TB. However, as noted in the 2011 Global Plan to Stop TB, novel drugs, rapid diagnostics, and, importantly, an effective vaccine are all needed to accelerate the decline of TB cases worldwide and drive TB toward elimination. Multifaceted global efforts will be required to reach this goal. As part of the international team dedicated to TB elimination, NIH will sustain and accelerate our support of the basic and clinical research that plays a critical role in developing medical countermeasures for TB, primarily through research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). NIAID’s strategic goals for the developing new TB vaccines are well complemented by and reflected in the new Blueprint. In U.S.-based research and collaborations conducted in more