UB, BVI, Pitzer sign vaccine accord

ARNOLD LETSHOLO
Correspondent | Friday April 13, 2012 00:00

Giving an overview of the project, the Dean of Science at UB, Professor Motsose Modisi said the two universities have had a student exchange programme since 2006. He related that in 2008, professors Larry Grill and Alan Jones of Pitzer gave a presentation at UB that detailed the technology that forms the basis of the vaccine initiative. A year later, he said, two staff members from the UB Department of Biological Sciences spent two weeks at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, to familiarize themselves with techniques required for the project.

'In 2010 the vaccine development investigators, Prof Grill, Dr Mpoloka, Mr Leteane, Prof Allan Jones and Dr Kebokile-Dengu Zvobgo had extensive consultations with several Botswana stakeholders. This dialogue culminated with the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) coming on board. BVI plays a critical role in vaccine development by clinically testing and distributing not only in Botswana but also the entire SADC sub-region,' he said. Following the discussions, a memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was drafted among the three institutes.

Of mention is the involvement of the Botswana National Veterinary Laboratories (BNVL). The lab plays a critical role in the partnership by assisting in disease identification, harvesting and sourcing of serum for laboratory testing.

For her part, the president of the Pitzer College, Prof Laura Skandera Trombley, described the day as historical.

She said that Pitzer College has been working in southern Africa for 22 years. It has had a programme in Botswana for the past 12 years and the number of students enrolled in the Pitzer programme in Botswana has grown to 236 since its inception in 2000.

Pitzer, she said, has become a leader in the domain of global partnership as is evidenced by the college being the leading liberal arts school in the United States Fulbright Fellowship awards for seven years running.'We are pleased that a Pitzer alumna supporter of this project in the United States has provided a gift sufficient to fund two graduate student scholarships to the University of Botswana to further develop the intellectual infrastructure necessary to sustain this project in the future.

For the past five years the Pitzer Vaccine Institute has been working on a new exciting vaccine development venture, using a tobacco-based technology developed by Pitzer faculty member, Dr Larry Grill.

This has expanded the scope and the depth of our academic partnership with the University of Botswana and now with the BVI,' she said. She added that to date the partnership has developed 11 candidate vaccines for Lumpy Skin Disease and those vaccines are now awaiting clinical testing. They are currently piloting a new technology for producing larger protein molecules for use as vaccine candidates for the disease.

This, she said, is a particularly significant accomplishment since five years ago no one on the Pitzer side of the partnership had ever heard of Lumpy Skin disease. In addition they have developed six candidate subunit vaccines for Rift Valley fever in livestock, two for Rabies and six for Rotavirus, which are currently being tested against antisera in Claremont.

'We are now to renew our commitment to that venture and to sign a memorandum of understanding that will move the project forward from a purely research endeavour to one that will take candidate vaccines through clinical trials. 'Hopefully in the not too distant future we will fully realise the partnership's promise through the production of safe, effective and affordable subunit vaccines for animal diseases that are endemic to Botswana and the SADC region. Eventually we aim to produce vaccines for human diseases,' she said.

BVI's General Manager, Dr George Matlho, thanked the two colleges for giving his institute the opportunity to be part of the MoU. He expressed joy for having the support of the Botswana government through the Department of Veterinary Services.

Dr Matlho revealed that BVI was a public company owned by the Botswana government. It started as a project under the Department of Veterinary in 1978. This followed the signing of a technical agreement with Merial to undertake research on foot and mouth disease (FMD) viruses in Botswana and the region and to make appropriate vaccines. It was registered as a company following the success of the project and has remained fully autonomous.

'As BVI we have continuously diversified our portfolio of products from the initial foot and mouth vaccine produced in 1978 to our current range where we now have six products to offer (FMD, Anthrax, Black-quarter, CBPP and PPR). The latest edition being the purified FMD vaccine, launched in 2011. When we were initially approached by the other partners on this new concept, we did not hesitate as it was in line with our current drive to further diversify our portfolio,' he said. (Sila Press Agency)