This week we celebrate World Immunization Week and the 50th anniversary of the WHO’s Essential Programme on Immunisation (EPI), driving international efforts to protect more children, adults, and their communities from vaccine-preventable diseases.

2024 is also Deallus’ 20th anniversary, and an opportunity to reflect on how our collaboration with key vaccines players allowed us to contribute to the evolution of the vaccines industry and its pivotal successes.

Over the past two decades, we witnessed the shift towards hexavalent paediatric vaccines, the inclusion of HPV vaccines in national and international programs, the first malaria, dengue and mRNA vaccines, the development of adult vaccine options, the broadening of protection against respiratory viruses… the journey has been nothing short of exhilarating.

The transformative impact of the past four years has further reshaped the traditional vaccine landscape and reset the expectations baseline drastically. In an industry forecasted to continue to reach USD 120bn+ by 2030 it will be up to vaccines players to live up to the public and global health – and shareholder value – promises they continue to make.

Vaccines are now developed, produced, and distributed faster and the range of diseases targeted is broader than ever before, with no signs of slowing down.

mRNA technology and the continued disruption AI advances demonstrated the ability to speed up development, enhance scientific, clinical, and commercial operations and promote local – and agile – production. Currencies to future success, manufacturers must continue to evolve modalities (mRNA, saRNA, DNA, next-generation VLP, etc), demonstrate high protection, reduce time-to-market, and offer an agile, reliable, and customisable supply.

Addressing the increasing burden of respiratory diseases and capitalising on the success of COVID vaccines, investments in prophylaxis solutions for RSV, COVID, flu and combination products are gaining momentum. However, respiratory viruses are not the only area where we expect to see significant changes in the ability to protect those at risk. Latent viruses (e.g. EBV, CMV, HZV) as well as neglected tropical diseases, particularly vector-borne diseases becoming more and more of an issue with global warming, should also be a priority investment for global vaccines players and governments alike.

Global access remains critical in a climate change reality and in an ever-connected world where we continue to see hard-to-tackle public health issues, populations displacement and resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases. Having more agile – and potentially more cost-effective – vaccine options and production/distribution models powered by tech; AI will encourage reach beyond Western markets.

At Deallus we have the privilege to help our clients anticipate both their shorter and longer-term competitive readiness opportunities, and proactively adapt to fundamental shifts in the industry. We are excited to continue to be a thought partner to global vaccines leaders as they strive to make a difference not only to shareholders but populations of all ages and health status worldwide.