Regions
MAIN/REGIONS
regions/
Regions
  1. Americas
  2. Asia & Oceania
  3. Europe
  4. Middle East & Africa
  1. Solutions
  2. Products
  3. Insights
  4. About
  5. Careers
  6. Contact Us
MAIN/search
MAIN/Solutions
Solutions/
SOLUTIONS
  • Research & Development
  • Real World Evidence
  • Commercialization
  • Safety & Regulatory Compliance
  • Technologies
LIFE SCIENCE SEGMENTS
HEALTHCARE SEGMENTS
THERAPEUTIC AREAS

Impacting People's Lives

"We strive to help improve outcomes and create a healthier, more sustainable world for people everywhere.

LEARN MORE
Harness the power to transform clinical development

Reimagine clinical development by intelligently connecting data, technology, and analytics to optimize your trials. The result? Faster decision making and reduced risk so you can deliver life-changing therapies faster.

Research & Development Overview
Research & Development Quick Links
Real World Evidence. Real Confidence. Real Results.

Generate and disseminate evidence that answers crucial clinical, regulatory and commercial questions, enabling you to drive smarter decisions and meet your stakeholder needs with confidence.

REAL WORLD EVIDENCE OVERVIEW
Real World Evidence Quick Links
See markets more clearly. Opportunities more often.

Elevate commercial models with precision and speed using AI-driven analytics and technology that illuminate hidden insights in data.

COMMERCIALIZATION OVERVIEW
Commercialization Quick Links
Service driven. Tech-enabled. Integrated compliance.

Orchestrate your success across the complete compliance lifecycle with best-in-class services and solutions for safety, regulatory, quality and medical information.

COMPLIANCE OVERVIEW
Safety & Regulatory Compliance Quick Links
Intelligence that transforms life sciences end-to-end.

When your destination is a healthier world, making intelligent connections between data, technology, and services is your roadmap.

TECHNOLOGIES OVERVIEW
Technology Quick Links
MAIN/Products
Products/
CLINICAL PRODUCTS
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS
COMPLIANCE, SAFETY, REG PRODUCTS
REAL WORLD PRODUCTS

CASE STUDY

"Data in a Day

LEARN MORE
MAIN/Insights
Insights/
BLOGS, WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES

Explore our library of insights, thought leadership, and the latest topics & trends in healthcare.

DISCOVER INSIGHTS
THE IQVIA INSTITUTE

An in-depth exploration of the global healthcare ecosystem with timely research, insightful analysis, and scientific expertise.

SEE LATEST REPORTS

INSTITUTE REPORT

"Global Trends in R&D 2024

READ MORE

EMEA Insights

"IQVIA thought leadership with a focus on EMEA.

Learn more

WHITE PAPER

"DCTs Deliver Big ROI

LEARN MORE

WHITE PAPER

"Capturing value at scale: The $4 billion RWE imperative

LEARN MORE
MAIN/About
About/
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
  • IQVIA Connected Intelligence™
  • IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI™
  • Human Data Science Cloud
  • IQVIA Innovation Hub
  • Decentralized Trials
  • Patient Experience Solutions with Apple devices
WHO WE ARE
NEWS & RESOURCES

INVESTOR RELATIONS

"Visit our investor relations site for more information.

LEARN MORE
Unlock your potential to drive healthcare forward

By making intelligent connections between your needs, our capabilities, and the healthcare ecosystem, we can help you be more agile, accelerate results, and improve patient outcomes.

LEARN MORE
IQVIA AI is Healthcare-grade AI

Building on a rich history of developing AI for healthcare, IQVIA AI connects the right data, technology, and expertise to address the unique needs of healthcare. It's what we call Healthcare-grade AI.

LEARN MORE

Your healthcare data deserves more than just a cloud.

The IQVIA Human Data Science Cloud is our unique capability designed to enable healthcare-grade analytics, tools, and data management solutions to deliver fit-for-purpose global data at scale.

LEARN MORE
Innovations make an impact when bold ideas meet powerful partnerships

The IQVIA Innovation Hub connects start-ups with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners. Together, we can help lead the future of healthcare with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners.

LEARN MORE
Proven, faster DCT solutions

IQVIA Decentralized Trials deliver purpose-built clinical services and technologies that engage the right patients wherever they are. Our hybrid and fully virtual solutions have been used more than any others.

LEARN MORE
IQVIA Patient Experience Solutions with Apple devices

Empowering patients to personalize their healthcare and connecting them to caregivers has the potential to change the care delivery paradigm.

LEARN MORE
MAIN/Careers
Careers/
WORKING AT IQVIA

Our mission is to accelerate innovation for a healthier world. Together, we can solve customer challenges and improve patient lives.

LEARN MORE
LIFE AT IQVIA

Careers, culture and everything in between. Find out what’s going on right here, right now.

LEARN MORE

WE’RE HIRING

"Improving human health requires brave thinkers who are willing to explore new ideas and build on successes. Unleash your potential with us.

SEARCH JOBS
MAIN/Contact Us
Contact Us/
Blog
Advances in Vaccine Technology
Key learnings from the pandemic
Kevin O’Brien, MD, VP & Global Head Allergy Respiratory and Infectious Diseases & Vaccines Center of Excellence
Apr 12, 2024
  • Blogs
  • Advances in Vaccine Technology

Vaccination remains a highly effective public health intervention, saving an estimated 4-5 million lives per year, and is also highly cost-effective, reducing future health-related costs by $4 for every $1 spent on adult immunization.1

While recent vaccine approvals have focused on COVID-1, there has also been innovation in other disease areas, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines, with the first such vaccine approved in 2023.2 The pandemic and the race to develop an effective vaccine led to more vaccine clinical trials, which expanded by 14% between 2017 and 2022, accounting for 7% of the overall industry pipeline in 2022.1 COVID-19 vaccines represented 15% of the pipeline (Figure 1).

Figure 1: COVID-19 vaccines account for 15% of the vaccines pipeline1

 

The widespread use of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines validated the real-world safety, efficacy and scalability of this technology, which was given emergency use authorization some 7 months after initial clinical trial dosing, yet was based on more than 50 years of research. As of May 11, 2023, 677 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the US.3 Based on this large-scale vaccine use and needs for the future, there were five key learnings:

  1. COVID-19 vaccine durability is not as long as originally hoped, with a need for multiple, frequent boosters to achieve high efficacy. This imposes a cost burden, especially for high-risk patients who may require the most boosters. This need for frequent boosters is unusual among vaccines, with some, such as the one for measles, able to provide lifelong protection and others, such as the tetanus vaccine, requiring boosters only every 10 years.
  2. There is potential for vaccines focused on T-cell immunity: COVID vaccines to date have primarily focused on the development of antibodies. Innovative, newer vaccines are focusing on inducing T-cell immunity, which is longer lasting. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is funding research in this area, recently awarding $1.4 billion to develop a new generation of tools and technologies to protect against COVID-19.4 Innovations include temperature-stable vaccines, and formulations suitable for nasal administration, which would be particularly useful in low- and middle-income countries.
  3. High risk populations should be part of the vaccine trials: Many of the early COVID vaccine trials used only healthy volunteers. However, it is important to pay attention to high-risk population subsets including those aged 65 and over, and those with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. These must now account for a mandated proportion of vaccine study populations, which should inform future administration strategies.
  4. Combination vaccines are needed, including ones for both COVID, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which will require ongoing tracking of strains around the world. Currently, some 14% of the mRNA vaccines pipeline are accounted for by combination vaccines for COVID-19, influenza and RSV (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The R&D pipeline for mRNA vaccines1

 

Looking ahead, COVID-19 vaccine development efforts are moving towards a goal of longer-lasting vaccines that require fewer doses, and combination vaccines that provide protection against multiple infectious diseases. These have scope to minimize the cost and healthcare burden of administering and gaining the public health benefits of these important vaccines.


References

1 Lutzmayer S, Bayley H. Race for Immunity: Exploring the Evolving Landscape of the Vaccines Market: A forward-looking perspective on vaccine innovation [internet]. IQVIA; 2023 [cited 2024Feb21]. Available from: Lessons Learned from COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: A CRO perspective on accelerating clinical development. 

2 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). News Release, FDA Approves First Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Vaccine. FDA; 2023May3 [cited 2024Mar13].

3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Internet]. CDC; 2023May11 [cited 2024Feb21]. COVID Data Tracker: Vaccinations in the United States as of May 11, 2023. Available from: COVID Data Tracker.

4 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [Internet]. HHS; 2023Aug22 [cited 2024Feb21]. Press Release: Project NextGen Awards Over $1.4 Billion to Develop the Future of COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics.

Related solutions

Contact Us