The year 2023 witnessed some major medical breakthroughs around the globe. During the year, some crucial vaccines were approved including the approvals of the first two vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, the first chikungunya vaccine, a new vaccine against malaria, and a move to new monovalent COVID-19 vaccines.
Here some important vaccines that were approved this year:
- RSV: In May, the FDA approved the world’s first RSV vaccine following years of failed attempts by scientists to develop one. The vaccine, GSK’s Arexvy, is approved in the United States to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in adults aged 60 years or older.
- Malaria: In October this year, WHO recommended the widespread use of a second vaccine for the prevention of malaria in children. R21 is the second malaria vaccine recommended by WHO.
- Chikungunya: Valneva’s Ixchiq is the first vaccine for chikungunya, which is spread by bites from infected Aedes mosquitoes. A CDC committee is expected to vote on its recommendation for use in February 2024.
- Meningococcal disease: CDC recommended new pentavalent meningococcal vaccine. The FDA approved Pfizer’s Penbraya as the only vaccine covering the five most common serogroups causing meningococcal disease in people aged 10 to 25 years. The new pentavalent meningococcal vaccine covers the five most common meningococcal serogroups — A, B, C, W-135 and Y — and reduces the number of doses needed for full vaccination to two shots given 6 months apart.
- Monovalent COVID-19 vaccines: The CDC recommended that COVID-19 vaccines for the 2023-2024 respiratory season be monovalent and target only omicron XBB subvariants of SARS-CoV-2. The CDC recommended that COVID-19 vaccines for the 2023-2024 respiratory season be monovalent and target only omicron XBB subvariants of SARS-CoV-2.
Some other major developments that took place this year:
- TB vaccine candidate gets up to $550 million in funding for phase 3 trial. The investigational vaccine, M72/AS01E, has been in development since the early 2000s. It was originally developed by GSK, which licensed the vaccine to the Gates Foundation in 2020. The vaccine continues to use GSK’s AS01 adjuvant system. Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will fund the phase 3 trial.
- Gonorrhea vaccine trial nears full enrollment. There are currently no licensed vaccines for the three nationally reportable STIs — chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis.
- In October this year, scientists completed the first ever human challenge trial for Zika virus. During this trial, the researchers infected volunteers to identify strains of the virus that can be safely used to test vaccines against the mosquito-borne pathogen.
