Vaccination has been used to control certain diseases since the late 18th century, when Edward Jenner used matter from cowpox lesions to inoculate people against smallpox.1 Since then, as understanding and technology have progressed, vaccination has become a key method to help prevent the transmission of some infectious diseases. In fact, only access to clean water has a greater positive impact on global health than vaccinations.2
Older vaccines, such as those successful against measles and polio, use a dead or weakened (attenuated) pathogen to activate the body’s immune system and stimulate antibody production. However, in someone with a compromised immune system, an attenuated pathogen may still cause the disease, and a dead pathogen may not result in a strong enough or long-lasting immune response.3 Thankfully, vaccine development has progressed.
Over recent decades, protein-based vaccines have been developed and successfully used to help combat infectious diseases such as diphtheria and tetanus. Instead of using the whole pathogen, these vaccines use a specific protein from the pathogen (known as an antigen), which has no function on its own but can be recognized by the body’s immune system.4 When isolated, purified, and injected into the body, this protein-based vaccine can provoke an immune response to help protect the body from infection without causing the disease.3
Through further scientific advances, the processes used to develop these protein-based vaccines have improved, making it quicker and easier to identify the best antigen for use in the vaccine and to produce this material in the quantities required.
One process that is crucial to the production of many vaccines, including ours, is genetic engineering. This technique enables Novavax scientists to use the genetic material from target pathogens to create highly purified recombinant proteins.5,6