Mark Hatherill 2019

Prof Mark Hatherill

University of Cape Town, South Africa

Keynote Speech: Major Advances and Next Steps for Tuberculosis Vaccine Development

Abstract

The only vaccine licensed against tuberculosis, Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG), has been in use for almost a century. BCG provides partial protection against severe forms of tuberculosis in childhood, but waning efficacy results in little or no protection against adult-type pulmonary tuberculosis, which is responsible for Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission. Almost one quarter of the global population is infected with M. tuberculosis. Approaches to prevent adult tuberculosis include vaccination before infection (pre-exposure) or after infection (post-exposure). Two proof of concept efficacy trials of BCG revaccination and the protein-subunit candidate vaccine M72/AS01E have made major advances in testing novel pre- and post-exposure vaccination approaches. Critical knowledge gaps, fast follower candidate vaccines, and next steps in clinical development will be discussed.

Biography

Professor Mark Hatherill is Director and leader of the clinical research team of the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), a University of Cape Town research centre focused on understanding risk for and protection against TB, in order to develop better vaccines and therapies that will impact the global epidemic. A UCT medical graduate, he trained as a pediatrician and critical care sub-specialist. SATVI has conducted 23 clinical trials of 9 novel TB vaccine candidates in more than 3,000 participants at their research site near Cape Town, in parallel with epidemiological and immunological studies of TB risk and prevention in more than 20,000 infants, adolescents, and adults. Prof Hatherill has played a lead role in two recent pivotal vaccine efficacy trials, one of BCG revaccination for prevention of M. tuberculosis infection in adolescents; and one of M72/ASO1E vaccine for prevention of progression to TB disease in adults. He is a member of the WHO IVR Working Group on TB Vaccines and Co-Chair of the Regional Prospective Observational Research in Tuberculosis (RePORT) South Africa consortium. His current work focuses on the design and implementation of clinical trials of novel TB vaccines and biomarker-targeted TB prevention.