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What’s involved in developing a
vaccine?
The sense of urgency that comes with infectious
diseases can itself fast-track progress towards
arriving at a vaccine. The need for immediate
action unites and galvanises a range of bodies
– from researchers and clinicians through to
regulatory bodies and manufacturers – in the quest
to get an effective treatment into the hands of
healthcare professionals as quickly as possible.
Even with these groups working tirelessly and with
a determined focus, the end-to-end process can still
take years. There are several stages that come before
a treatment is ready to be put into the market.
These include:
• Exploratory stage; working through thousands
of potential compounds to shortlist vaccine
candidates, and research into immune response
• Pre-clinical stage; lab analysis to identify
relevant antigens to arrive at a vaccine concept
and design
• Clinical development; trialling of vaccine on test
groups of varying characteristics
• Regulatory review and approval; verification
of vaccine safety and compliance with health
regulation
• Manufacturing and quality control; development
of medicines in preparation for mass
distribution
Each of these steps is essential in ensuring that
the vaccine produced is effective and safe, that any
side-effects are properly understood and that it can
be produced at scale on a consistent basis until the
threat of illness has been sufficiently minimised.
Historically, the complexity, regulation and cost
involved in each of these stages has slowed down
the response to emerging health issues. Now, due
to advances in AI-related technologies, we have
an opportunity to rapidly accelerate the process
through which we can deploy treatments into the
field.
How can AI assist in this process?
While we can never expect overnight success when
dealing with something as complex as vaccine
development, we can act to remove some of the
constraints and bottlenecks that may hamper
progress. Advances in automating data analysis
and improving visualisation of what is happening
at each step of the discovery stage can address
some of these inefficiencies, helping to accelerate
the process of vaccine development and streamline
operations to upscale production.
Here are some of the roles AI can play at each stage:
Exploratory/pre-clinical
The initial phases of drug discovery often involve a
filtering process to narrow down vaccine candidates
based on prior studies and treatments. Researchers
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