A New Roadmap for Rapid Vaccine Development: What Veterinary Science Can Learn from COVID-19

07 Jul 2025

The IVVN is pleased to share the publication of a new paper by Dr Michael Francis, IVVN Board member and Managing Director of BioVacc Consulting Ltd, which offers timely insights into accelerating vaccine development in the face of pandemic threats.

Published in the journal Vaccine, the article titled “A rapid human vaccine process development map outlining lessons learnt from ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic” introduces a new “rapid development” map that has been added to the UK Vaccine Network’s vaccine development website.

This 14-stage process map is based on lessons learned from the accelerated development of the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 COVID-19 vaccine. It provides a clear and structured view of the steps taken to bring the vaccine from pre-clinical discovery to human administration within just 359 days. As Dr Francis notes:

I hope that this new map will be a useful addition to those covering standard human and veterinary vaccine development, and that it will provide a helpful guide to those involved in rapid vaccine development in the face of a pandemic disease threat.
 

The map and accompanying paper highlight the importance of preparedness measures, including investment in vaccine platform technologies, early pathogen sequencing and sharing, pilot-scale GMP manufacturing capability, strong regulatory collaboration, and an expert network for clinical trial implementation.

In parallel, Dr Francis’s earlier publication, “Considerations for rapid development and licencing of conventional and platform technology veterinary vaccines” (published in Avian Pathology), explores the veterinary sector can adopt similar strategies to reduce product development timelines.

This paper discusses:

  • The structure of the traditional veterinary vaccine development pipeline, including the formulation of a Target Product Profile (TPP) and the separation of research and development phases.
  • The value of established platform technologies, such as viral vectors and mRNA, for rapid vaccine deployment.
  • Regulatory mechanisms and recent changes under EU Regulation 2019/6 that enable greater flexibility and innovation, including the Veterinary Vaccine Antigen Master File (VAMF) certification process.
  • The importance of scaling up manufacturing and running safety and efficacy trials “at risk”, mirroring the approach taken during COVID-19 vaccine development.
  • Special considerations for poultry vaccines, where cost, convenience, and broad protection play critical roles in product uptake.

Both papers recognise the role of 'One Health” thinking and stress the relevance of cross-sector learning, particularly in the development of vaccines for zoonotic threats.

The combined insights from these publications present a compelling case for integrating human and veterinary vaccinology to better prepare for future epidemics and pandemics.

Dr Francis’s rapid development map is now available at www.vaccinedevelopment.org.uk. Like previous versions, the updated map is designed to serve as a practical reference for those involved in vaccine development, helping to guide and support the end-to-end R&D process.

For any further information or to discuss the work in more detail, Dr Michael Francis can be contacted at mike [dot] francis [at] biovaccconsulting [dot] com.