Bruce Forrest recently joined the Q-VANT team as Chief Scientific Officer, bringing more than two decades of experience in vaccine and adjuvant development and commercialization. A former senior vice president of R&D with Pfizer/Wyeth Vaccines, Bruce has a global reputation of delivering innovation solutions to complex challenges in the pharmaceutical industry. He shared some insights about Q-VANT’s offering and its potential impact in the market.

 Q-VANT: How do adjuvants work with vaccines and what makes QS-21 stand out from others?

BF: Adjuvants are molecules that are added to a vaccine formulation to help shape the immune response. They are not molecules against which you make an immune response but work with that protein – the antigen – so that the immune response is one that is more appropriate in conferring protection. The effect of this can be at several levels. For example, if the antigen is difficult or expensive to make, an adjuvant can allow a lower dose to be used so that there is better availability of the vaccine for the community; or, if the antigen is not very effective at eliciting an immune response, an adjuvant can improve the immune response so that the vaccine can work more effectively.

QS-21 is one of the most studied novel adjuvants for vaccines for humans. It is already in vaccines that have been approved for humans as being safe and efficacious for those applicable indications and is currently being evaluated in large-scale clinical programs of vaccines for COVID-19.

It is a naturally derived product that does not contain metal salts, such as aluminum, that are commonly found in many approved vaccines. However, it is the balanced nature of the immune response that it works to elicit when given with an antigen that differentiates it from most of the adjuvants contained within currently approved vaccines that is the major beneficial advantage.

Q-VANT: Q-VANT’s technology has the potential to increase the QS-21 supply, resulting in a possible annual production capacity exceeding 20 billion pharmaceutical doses. Explain why this is such an important breakthrough for vaccine developers.

BF: Vaccines containing QS-21 have been approved for shingles and more recently malaria, in addition to its  inclusion in a current investigational COVID-19 vaccine. It is sourced from slow-growing quillaja trees in Chile. However, there is intense competition for these trees as they provide not only the raw materials from which QS-21 is extracted, but also the extracts used by other industries as foaming agents in beverages, emulsifiers in foods, and even in cosmetics.

Therefore, QS-21 has to be sustainably sourced and effectively managed to ensure that it will remain available as an important option for both human and veterinary vaccines.

Q-VANT has identified how to sustainably extract QS-21 to address all current and future demands for the adjuvant. Sustainable supply is critical in ensuring the delivery of vaccines to the population and also to managing the cost of these components as the industry focuses on addressing affordability of new vaccines.

Q-VANT: Can you tell us more about the future of vaccines using QS-21? How many candidates are in clinical trials and which ones are the most promising?

BF: QS-21 vaccines have been approved in various countries for the prevention of shingles (including approval in the US), and recently malaria internationally. There is an active late-stage clinical program for a QS-21 containing vaccine against COVID-19 that has recently demonstrated to be highly efficacious in a Phase 3 clinical trial and has received Emergency Use Approval or that equivalent in several international markets. There have also been new vaccines for veterinary use that now incorporate QS-21 as a safer and more effective adjuvant for the benefit of animal health.

Learn more about the entire executive team and Q-VANT’s offering at q-vant.com.