Up next in our exclusive series of Congress Conversations from the Barcelona event we are delighted to share an interview with Dr Andrew Catchpole, hVIVO. He joined us at the Congress for a presentation and a panel, sharing his insights on human challenge models. We were glad that Dr Catchpole was happy to return for another conversation after our first meeting in Washington; you can watch the earlier interview here. We are grateful to Dr Catchpole for his time and hope you enjoy the interview!
Introducing Dr Catchpole
As Dr Catchpole states, he is Chief Scientific Officer at hVIVO. The company describes itself as a “rapidly growing specialist contract research organisation” and “the world leader in testing infectious and respiratory disease vaccines and antivirals using human challenge clinical trials”.
Informing vaccine development
Clearly human challenge studies are important to hVIVO, but how do they serve the vaccine community? Dr Catchpole explains that they can be “really critical” in providing a “really quick, nice read on efficacy”. After Phase I, which determines safety, the next question is “does my vaccine actually work”, and Dr Catchpole believes that hVIVO’s trials can help developers answer this.
“Doing field trials with the type of pathogens we work with, mainly respiratory pathogens, can take a long time, you chase the disease around the globe; human viral challenge studies we can do them all year round, so there’s no seasonality issues, and then get a nice, quick read on ‘does my vaccine work, and is it efficacious?'”
What is hVIVO working on?
With the importance of these studies in mind, we asked Dr Catchpole for a quick insight into the current work that his team is conducting. He explains that they are working “across all three types” of influenza, as well as RSV studies.
“So, it’s quite a lot going on at hVIVO!”
The future of challenge studies
We then asked Dr Catchpole what he thinks the future of challenge studies holds, and he reflected on the expansion that is already taking place.
“Challenge studies have been used to test vaccines for a long time now and they’ve been used for different reasons.”
“What I think is the really new thing that we’re seeing is a real adoption by big biotech and big pharma, doing challenge and their use is slightly different. So they’re very much using challenge studies to understand how the efficacy of this product either competes with other technologies to solve the same problem… or to get efficacy data.”
“So we’re seeing larger trials coming out as a product of that really.”
Responding to demand
With our conversation looking to the future, we asked Dr Catchpole what hVIVO’s plans are. He kindly explained that “demand in challenge studies has increased both in volume and the different types of pathogens”. Therefore, he and his team are “very much trying to respond to that”. Alongside new strains for existing pathogens, they’re tackling other viruses like hMPV.
On a practical, or physical, level, hVIVO is establishing a new clinical trials unit, custom built to include 50 beds in one place; this will be more efficient.
“You know efficiency equals speed for our customers.”
Why WVC?
As always, we conclude the interview by asking for the reasons that our interviewees are joining us. Dr Catchpole states that he’s been “delighted” to share the positive progress his team is making with the community, but it’s also important to use the opportunity to learn.
“It’s also great to listen out to what’s coming down in the future track.”
For example, there were some exciting developments in RSV and metapneumovirus that Dr Catchpole was keen to understand, particularly after hVIVO’s contribution to previous RSV efforts. As the market moves on, it’s essential to “keep very much aligned” with the needs of the community.
We hope that the Congress was productive for the hVIVO team, and look forward to hearing more from them at the Congress in Washington next year! Thank you to Dr Catchpole and his team for facilitating the conversation; if you enjoyed this why not subscribe for more like it?
