Progress and challenges in Nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and response

Introduction Nipah virus is a high-consequence pathogen that causes sporadic outbreaks with high mortality, and there are currently no vaccines or therapeutics available for Nipah. Vaccine development against Nipah faces challenges due to its current epidemiology with limited outbreak sizes, which i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sol Kim, Hyolim Kang, Laura Skrip, Sushant Sahastrabuddhe, Ausraful Islam, Sung-Mok Jung, Juan F. Vesga, Akira Endo, W. John Edmunds, Kaja Abbas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-12-01
Series:Expert Review of Vaccines
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14760584.2025.2476523
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849718077764141056
author Sol Kim
Hyolim Kang
Laura Skrip
Sushant Sahastrabuddhe
Ausraful Islam
Sung-Mok Jung
Juan F. Vesga
Akira Endo
W. John Edmunds
Kaja Abbas
author_facet Sol Kim
Hyolim Kang
Laura Skrip
Sushant Sahastrabuddhe
Ausraful Islam
Sung-Mok Jung
Juan F. Vesga
Akira Endo
W. John Edmunds
Kaja Abbas
author_sort Sol Kim
collection DOAJ
description Introduction Nipah virus is a high-consequence pathogen that causes sporadic outbreaks with high mortality, and there are currently no vaccines or therapeutics available for Nipah. Vaccine development against Nipah faces challenges due to its current epidemiology with limited outbreak sizes, which impedes the feasibility of conducting vaccine efficacy trials focused on disease endpoints.Areas covered We review the progress of Nipah vaccine candidates in human clinical trials and highlight the challenges in evaluating the vaccine efficacy due to the sporadic nature of Nipah outbreaks, given the epidemic potential of Nipah virus and its implications for pandemic preparedness. We examine the alternative regulatory pathways, including the US FDA’s Animal Rule and EMA’s conditional marketing authorization, which permit vaccine approval based on surrogate markers rather than efficacy data from the large-scale Phase-3 efficacy trials. The need for standardized immune surrogate markers is emphasized, alongside calls for international collaboration to develop such endpoints and manage stockpile strategies.Expert opinion We recommend alignment among vaccine developers, regulators, and global health stakeholders to incentivize Nipah vaccine development and approval through alternative regulatory pathways, as well as ensuring epidemic preparedness via strategic vaccine stockpiling and response through targeted deployment strategies.
format Article
id doaj-art-83ea1e1c8ac04b088f95babd25a39857
institution DOAJ
issn 1476-0584
1744-8395
language English
publishDate 2025-12-01
publisher Taylor & Francis Group
record_format Article
series Expert Review of Vaccines
spelling doaj-art-83ea1e1c8ac04b088f95babd25a398572025-08-20T03:12:27ZengTaylor & Francis GroupExpert Review of Vaccines1476-05841744-83952025-12-0124118319310.1080/14760584.2025.2476523Progress and challenges in Nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and responseSol Kim0Hyolim Kang1Laura Skrip2Sushant Sahastrabuddhe3Ausraful Islam4Sung-Mok Jung5Juan F. Vesga6Akira Endo7W. John Edmunds8Kaja Abbas9Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Dynamics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UKDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Dynamics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UKDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Dynamics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UKInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, JapanInfectious Diseases Division, icddr,b, Dhaka, BangladeshCarolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USAStatistics, Modelling & Economics Division, UK Health Security Agency, London, UKDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Dynamics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UKDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Dynamics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UKDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Dynamics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UKIntroduction Nipah virus is a high-consequence pathogen that causes sporadic outbreaks with high mortality, and there are currently no vaccines or therapeutics available for Nipah. Vaccine development against Nipah faces challenges due to its current epidemiology with limited outbreak sizes, which impedes the feasibility of conducting vaccine efficacy trials focused on disease endpoints.Areas covered We review the progress of Nipah vaccine candidates in human clinical trials and highlight the challenges in evaluating the vaccine efficacy due to the sporadic nature of Nipah outbreaks, given the epidemic potential of Nipah virus and its implications for pandemic preparedness. We examine the alternative regulatory pathways, including the US FDA’s Animal Rule and EMA’s conditional marketing authorization, which permit vaccine approval based on surrogate markers rather than efficacy data from the large-scale Phase-3 efficacy trials. The need for standardized immune surrogate markers is emphasized, alongside calls for international collaboration to develop such endpoints and manage stockpile strategies.Expert opinion We recommend alignment among vaccine developers, regulators, and global health stakeholders to incentivize Nipah vaccine development and approval through alternative regulatory pathways, as well as ensuring epidemic preparedness via strategic vaccine stockpiling and response through targeted deployment strategies.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14760584.2025.2476523Alternative regulatory pathwayNipah virusHenipavirus nipahensepandemic preparednessvaccine efficacy trialsvaccine licensure
spellingShingle Sol Kim
Hyolim Kang
Laura Skrip
Sushant Sahastrabuddhe
Ausraful Islam
Sung-Mok Jung
Juan F. Vesga
Akira Endo
W. John Edmunds
Kaja Abbas
Progress and challenges in Nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and response
Expert Review of Vaccines
Alternative regulatory pathway
Nipah virus
Henipavirus nipahense
pandemic preparedness
vaccine efficacy trials
vaccine licensure
title Progress and challenges in Nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and response
title_full Progress and challenges in Nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and response
title_fullStr Progress and challenges in Nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and response
title_full_unstemmed Progress and challenges in Nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and response
title_short Progress and challenges in Nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and response
title_sort progress and challenges in nipah vaccine development and licensure for epidemic preparedness and response
topic Alternative regulatory pathway
Nipah virus
Henipavirus nipahense
pandemic preparedness
vaccine efficacy trials
vaccine licensure
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14760584.2025.2476523
work_keys_str_mv AT solkim progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT hyolimkang progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT lauraskrip progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT sushantsahastrabuddhe progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT ausrafulislam progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT sungmokjung progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT juanfvesga progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT akiraendo progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT wjohnedmunds progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse
AT kajaabbas progressandchallengesinnipahvaccinedevelopmentandlicensureforepidemicpreparednessandresponse