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Global bioheroes: clinical research and new vaccines for health security

Global bioheroes: clinical research and new vaccines for health security
Global bioheroes: clinical research and new vaccines for health security
In the pursuit of ‘global health security’, some governments advocate deployment of pharmaceuticals to combat deadly infectious diseases wherever they emerge. Following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, attention has turned to other emerging diseases and future pharmaceutical solutions. There is growing support for enabling faster clinical research to make new vaccines available sooner. Research on experimental vaccines must ordinarily be consistent with ethical principles designed to protect human research participants. However, where a target disease is framed in security terms, it could be argued that an extraordinary response is required: exposing research participants to more risk in order to accelerate research and enable more lives to be saved pharmaceutically. This article assesses two scenarios of security-oriented research. The scenario envisaged by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is the propelling of vaccine research through to the stage of human safety-testing before a natural outbreak of the relevant disease. Efficacy and effectiveness tests are then able to be conducted once an outbreak begins. In a hypothetical second scenario, pre-outbreak vaccine research undertaken for the sake of health security would also include efficacy-testing. This would involve the exposure to pathogenic microorganisms of healthy volunteers (‘global bioheroes’) from around the world.
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Ebola, health security, research ethics, vaccines
1035-7718
584-601
Enemark, Christian
004b6521-f1bb-426a-a37b-686c6a8061f6
Enemark, Christian
004b6521-f1bb-426a-a37b-686c6a8061f6

Enemark, Christian (2018) Global bioheroes: clinical research and new vaccines for health security. Australian Journal Of International Affairs, 72 (6), 584-601. (doi:10.1080/10357718.2018.1534937).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In the pursuit of ‘global health security’, some governments advocate deployment of pharmaceuticals to combat deadly infectious diseases wherever they emerge. Following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, attention has turned to other emerging diseases and future pharmaceutical solutions. There is growing support for enabling faster clinical research to make new vaccines available sooner. Research on experimental vaccines must ordinarily be consistent with ethical principles designed to protect human research participants. However, where a target disease is framed in security terms, it could be argued that an extraordinary response is required: exposing research participants to more risk in order to accelerate research and enable more lives to be saved pharmaceutically. This article assesses two scenarios of security-oriented research. The scenario envisaged by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is the propelling of vaccine research through to the stage of human safety-testing before a natural outbreak of the relevant disease. Efficacy and effectiveness tests are then able to be conducted once an outbreak begins. In a hypothetical second scenario, pre-outbreak vaccine research undertaken for the sake of health security would also include efficacy-testing. This would involve the exposure to pathogenic microorganisms of healthy volunteers (‘global bioheroes’) from around the world.

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Global Bioheroes AJIA as accepted - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 20 September 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 October 2018
Published date: 19 December 2018
Keywords: Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Ebola, health security, research ethics, vaccines

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 423460
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/423460
ISSN: 1035-7718
PURE UUID: d5dafe60-841e-47a6-8d0a-f6a21573d220
ORCID for Christian Enemark: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1833-0927

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 24 Sep 2018 16:30
Last modified: 13 Jun 2024 04:01

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