BactiVac Network awarded £700,000 by UK Vaccine Network Project to focus on potential outbreaks

BactiVac, the Bacterial Vaccine Network, is hosted at the University of Birmingham and has recently received a new funding stream to continue its work to promote the partnership, disseminate relevant information and provide support for catalytic projects and training to accelerate development vaccines for bacterial infections. relevant to lower-middle-income countries (LMICs)

The UK Vaccine Network (UKVN) project, based at the Department of Health and Social Care, is a UK Aid project to accelerate the development of vaccines for diseases with epidemic potential in LMIC countries.

Bacterial infections kill more than 8 million people each year, and the development of new and better vaccines will reduce this devastating disease burden. BactiVac was founded in 2017 under the leadership of Professors Calman MacLennan and Adam Cunningham and now has over 1,800 members in 88 countries. BactiVac brings together academia, industry, policy makers and funders, 50% of which are based in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), to advance the development of vaccines against bacterial pathogens of global importance.

While viral pathogens have received the most attention for outbreak potential, bacteria also pose an important outbreak threat. These can be respiratory, diarrheal, alimentary, or vector-borne and may have bioterrorist potential. There is also the ongoing threat of a hitherto unknown bacterial ‘pathogen X’.

UKVN funding will be used to fund catalytic research projects focused on improving our epidemic preparedness against bacterial disease outbreaks.

Professor Sir Chris WhittyChief Medical Officer for England

“These catalyst awards will support the UK Vaccine Network’s aim to accelerate the development of vaccines for diseases with epidemic potential in low- and middle-income countries.”

Professor Adam CunninghamBactiVac Co-Director

“We are grateful to the British Vaccine Network for their generous support and for sharing BactiVac’s vision that bacterial vaccines have a critical role to play in controlling bacterial infections. BactiVac will continue to support its members to develop new vaccines, especially those that are relevant to LMICs.”