Our next interview from the Barcelona Congress Conversations series is with AstraZeneca‘s Dr Rosalind Hollingsworth, who joined us at the Congress for our closing keynote panel on the future of adult immunisation. Before her panel she kindly made time to meet us for a conversation about key concerns for adult immunisation and how she and her team are approaching them. We are glad that we got the opportunity to learn more, and hope that you enjoy the interview!
Introducing Dr Hollingsworth
Dr Hollingsworth kindly explains that she is the Global Medical Affairs Head, Vaccines and Immune Therapies at AstraZeneca. This means that she leads a “team of physicians and scientists” who “turn science into action”!
“We provide the evidence and insights that are needed to support our pipeline assets and their development, but also we look to apply our knowledge to how we can increase uptake and encourage administration of our vaccines and immune therapies; people need them.”
Learning from COVID-19
Many of our wonderful experts are asked a similar question about ‘lessons’ that we might take from the pandemic, and Dr Hollingsworth generously offered her perspective on what we might hope to apply in future circumstances. Firstly, she comments that “we were driven by urgency”, and supported by a “huge amount of investment” in the vaccine rollout. She has two key impressions: the accelerated regulatory review and the focus on accelerated clinical development pathways.
Although the pandemic has been “declared over”, Dr Hollingsworth recognises that this is not the case for so many, and therefore capitalising on this experience of acceleration will be critical. For some populations, vaccines “may not work as well”, so other solutions are required. Thus, passive immunisation strategies will benefit from a similar kind of urgency.
“Having in place that accelerated regulatory review, for a population still disproportionately affected, I think is going to be critical.”
Adult immunisations: not one-size-fits-all
Dr Hollingsworth mentioned a specific group among the adult population: the immunocompromised. This lead us back to the subject of her panel during the Congress, which covered strategies to improve adult immunisation programmes. We asked how we should approach the “adult” population; is it enough to contrast adults with children, or is there a greater distinction to be made? Dr Hollingsworth reflects that we’ve made assumptions about this that are clearly ineffective:
“Historically, we viewed the 18-year-olds and the 100-year-olds as being exactly the same and, you know, a one-size-fits-all approach to disease prevention, and that’s clearly not the case!”
Not only does every individual have a different “risk of infectious disease”, this risk is variable with time for each person. Both immunosenescence and the development of chronic medical conditions can affect vulnerability to disease and affect how we respond to vaccines.
“For me the future is getting away from this one-size-fits-all, everybody’s-the-same culture in vaccines, and really looking at how we can tailor our responses to the needs of individual patients…for many that will still be vaccines…but then for others, who don’t respond to vaccines, I think we also need to be considering the role of passive immunisation.
Dr Hollingsworth refers to a paper that highlights the dramatic effect of COVID-19 on immunocompromised communities, despite the fact that they are a “very well-vaccinated population”.
“So there’s something not working quite right and we need something else to address that.”
Vaccines for most and monoclonal antibodies for the most vulnerable
With the importance of adult immunisation in mind, we asked Dr Hollingsworth to share some insight into her team’s work on this. She gives a clear summary of their focus:
“Vaccines for most, and monoclonal antibodies for the most vulnerable.”
This is a “complementary approach” to disease prevention, ensuring that “we’re all protected”. Although the “current focus” is on COVID-19 monoclonal antibody development, “driving a sense of urgency” to support the most vulnerable, they are also reexamining their live-attenuated influenza vaccine to see how they can “improve access” for both adults and children.
“I think, beyond that, we’ve got a really robust pipeline…driven by need, and looking not only at a population level, but what do we need to do with special populations…to really make sure they enjoy optimal protection.”
Why WVC?
Our last question, as always, offers an opportunity for our speakers to share their intentions for the Congress, or their reasons for joining us. For Dr Hollingsworth, the networking is a great attraction, because the event brings people working “at the cutting edge” to one space!
“Just a real great opportunity to explore the science, and really understand what’s next.”
Furthermore, the focus at this event for Dr Hollingsworth has been on lessons from the pandemic, and how we can “solve some of the really big problems that still remain”. We hope that these conversations continue beyond the Congress!
It was a pleasure to meet Dr Hollingsworth and hear more about her work; we do hope that you enjoyed the interview. For more like this, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter here!
