Innovations Advancing Vaccine Preparedness and Response Capabilities to Counter Pandemic Influenza

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Influenza Virus Vaccines".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 462

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC 20201, USA
Interests: influenza; emerging infectious diseases; preclinical and clinical development of vaccines; pandemic response
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority Administration of Strategic Preparedness and Response, Washington, DC, USA
Interests: influenza vaccine development strategy and manufacturing technology

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Guest Editor
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, USA
Interests: human influenza; zoonotic influenza; pandemic; pandemic preparedness; avian influenza; influenza virus; influenza immune response; influenza vaccine

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
United States Department, Health and Human Services, Washington, DC 20201, USA
Interests: influenza; emerging infectious diseases; preclinical and clinical development of vaccines; pandemic response

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The following Special Issue invites original contributions that propose or demonstrate innovations across the entire target product profile of candidate influenza vaccines. These innovations aim to surpass currently available vaccines in key metrics such as efficacy, durability, breadth of protection, development speed, adaptability, and ease of administration. We are particularly interested in novel vaccine candidates leveraging "platform technologies" (e.g., nucleic acid, recombinant proteins, and viral vectors) that can significantly expedite the development timeline for pandemic vaccines from initial sequence identification to regulatory approval and mass deployment.

We welcome submissions covering the following topics of interest:

  • New vaccine mechanisms of action, high efficacy, and safety.
  • Seasonal vaccines with the potential to convey some level of immunity to an emerging zoonotic influenza virus.
  • Passive immunization or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) with monoclonal antibodies
  • Manufacturing platform speed, yield, and capacity.
  • Clinical trial acceleration and correlates of protection.
  • Enabling technologies and strategies, including the following:
    • New or improved immune assays to support product development;
    • New or improved assays to understand antigenic drift and escape from vaccine immunity.
  • Accessibility, impact, and sustainability, including the following:
    • Single-dose regimens;
    • Alternative routes of administration;
    • Vaccine uptake.

Dr. Ruben Donis
Dr. Sam Lee
Dr. Christine Oshansky
Dr. Leah Watson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • influenza vaccines
  • efficacy
  • vaccine uptake
  • rapid manufacturing
  • vaccine mechanism of action
  • alternative routes of administration
  • single-dose regimens

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 731 KiB  
Article
Economic Impacts of Initiating Vaccination at 3 Months vs. 6 Months in an Influenza Pandemic in the United States
by Van Hung Nguyen, Pascal Crepey, B. Adam Williams, Verna L. Welch, Jean Marie Pivette, Charles H. Jones and Jane M. True
Vaccines 2025, 13(8), 828; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines13080828 (registering DOI) - 1 Aug 2025
Abstract
Background/Objectives: An influenza pandemic is likely to occur in the coming decades and will be associated with substantial healthcare and financial burdens. In this study, we evaluated the potential economic costs of different vaccination scenarios for the US population in the context of [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: An influenza pandemic is likely to occur in the coming decades and will be associated with substantial healthcare and financial burdens. In this study, we evaluated the potential economic costs of different vaccination scenarios for the US population in the context of a moderate or severe influenza pandemic. Methods: Economic analysis was performed for initiation of pandemic vaccination from 3 months vs. 6 months in the US after declaration of a pandemic. We evaluated three vaccine effectiveness levels (high, moderate, low) and two pandemic severity levels (moderate and severe). Results: No vaccination would lead to total direct and indirect costs of $116 bn in a moderate pandemic and $823 bn in a severe pandemic. Initiation of vaccination at 3 months would result in cost savings versus no vaccination (excluding vaccine price) of $30–84 bn and $260–709 bn in a moderate and severe pandemic, respectively, whereas initiation of vaccination at 6 months would result in cost savings of $4–11 bn and $36–97 bn, respectively. Cost savings of $20 bn and $162 bn would occur in a moderate or severe pandemic, respectively, from use of a low effectiveness vaccine from 3 months instead of a high effectiveness vaccine from 6 months. Conclusions: Rapid initiation of vaccination would have a greater impact than increased vaccine effectiveness in reducing the economic impacts of an influenza pandemic. Full article
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