The Discovery to Innovation in Animal Health Conference (DIAH) was organised to bridge the gap between early developers, including academia, regulators, research organizations, and spin-offs/start-ups on one side, and medium-to large-sized companies on the other. The DIAH Conference confronted and aligned vision from academia, industry and regulators, emphasizing the need for early collaboration, careful IP management, and strategic planning for successful product development and partnerships. Recent breakthroughs in vaccinology have not only accelerated the vaccine production process but have also improved antigen quality significantly. These novel technologies are likely to transform vaccine development and play a crucial role in addressing both immediate health challenges (such as cancer vaccines) and ensuring preparedness for future pandemics. The potential and pitfalls of leveraging AI to drive forward R&I activities in the field of animal health were also discussed. Researchers and entrepreneurs looking for collaboration or investment presented a series of new technologies and start-ups, respectively. A market analysis showed that the animal health industry, while highly consolidated, also shows great diversity, ranging from big pharma to companies offering diagnostics, nutritional health services, wearables, feed additives, animal feed and genetic analyses. An analysis of the investment landscape, although subject to external factors, showed that the chances for success are high when good science, a well established regulatory pathways, with a clearly defined market need can be combined with experienced management and a strong investor consortium.

An essential step in pharmaceutical product development is screening for contamination with adventitious agents, and there is desire to develop highly sensitive assays to detect adventitious viral nucleic acid. This study sought to examine the nucleic acid extraction efficiency of three viral candidates in relevant background matrices using four different extraction methods. Three model adventitious viruses, Minute virus of Mice, Porcine Circovirus, and Feline Leukemia Virus, were diluted within a variety of background matrices relevant to pharmaceutical production methods. Upon extraction, the nucleic acid was quantified using droplet digital PCR methods. Four nucleic acid extraction methods were assessed, including commercially available kits and manual extraction methods. Each method recovered nucleic acid post-extraction for each of the model viruses within the tested background matrices. The silica-column based method recovered a greater amount of viral nucleic acid, compared to the other methods tested. Similar trends were observed when model virus was diluted in bioreactor supernatant, which replicates industry testing conditions and provides details on which extraction methods might be used in Next Generation Sequencing and PCR methods for detecting contamination within pharmaceutical products.

In February 2023, a meeting about correlates of protection (CoPs) against COVID-19 was organized by the International Alliance for Biological Standardization, the European Plotkin Institute for Vaccinology, and Vaccinopolis. The meeting aimed at reviewing the evidence, drawing conclusions, and identifying knowledge gaps.Collection of evidence is not straightforward. Neutralizing antibodies correlate with protection and are used for immunobridging studies within and between vaccine platforms for approval of new COVID-19 vaccines. In preparation for the next pandemic, it is vital that rapidly authorized initial vaccines are available to perform immunobridging studies very early. Additional components of the immune response likely contribute to protection against symptomatic infection. Current evidence is strongest for T lymphocytes and binding antibodies. Further studies are needed to consolidate this evidence and define their potential role in the evaluation of vaccines. For evaluation of mucosal vaccines, identifying CoPs against infection and transmission is key; further research is needed to identify and standardize methods suitable for clinical studies. CoPs for broadly protective beta-coronavirus vaccines remain a critical area of research.The knowledge, expertise, and capacity exist to conduct clinical studies using different designs in different populations to discover and validate CoPs, facilitating and accelerating evaluation of novel vaccines/vaccination platforms.