US military strikes deal to secure adenovirus shots from Teva

The adenovirus vaccination programme among US military recruits restarted in 2011 to halt the re-emergence of infectious respiratory disease in basic training camps, twelve years after depleted stocks of a vaccine made by Wyeth were not replenished by the US Department of Defense (DOD).

“The DOD has awarded Teva with a five-year agreement to continue to supply Adenovirus Type 4 and Type 7 Vaccine, Live, Oral,”​ spokesperson for the pharma firm Michelle Larkin told Biopharma-Reporter.com.

“We believe the Adenovirus Vaccine Program fulfils an important need within the US military and we remain committed to supplying the vaccine to all U.S. military personnel in basic training.”​

Teva manufactures the product at its facility in Forest, Virginia, and “since the introduction of this vaccine in 2011, more than 700,000 vaccines have been manufactured and shipped to the DOD,”​ Larkin said.

“Teva is honored to continue working with the DOD to aid in the health and preparedness of our US military men and women by supplying them with the adenovirus vaccine to help prevent FRI [Febrile Respiratory Illness] during basic training.”​

“The more successful a vaccine is, the more quickly the need for it will be forgotten”​

The close proximities of military bases, along with the physical and psychological stress of training, makes army recruits more susceptible to the adenovirus, and – exacerbated by events including the influenza pandemic of 1918, and World War II​ – development of a vaccine to protect military personnel from febrile acute respiratory disease caused by Adenovirus Type 4 and Type 7 began.

First an injectable vaccine was developed at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in 1956, before being replace by a live, oral vaccine manufactured by Wyeth Laboratories in 1971.

According to an article in the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Emerging Infectious Diseases journal​, during the period without vaccination eight deaths among military personnel were attributed to the adenoviral respiratory disease, compared to just one death when the immunisation programme was active (1971-99).

A Naval Health Research Center report on FRI in military bases further shows disease and adenovirus serotype 4 isolation rates have fallen dramatically since the reintroduction of the vaccination in 2011.

The reintroduction of consequent drop in infection demonstrates “the more successful a vaccine is, the more quickly the need for it will be forgotten,”​ say the authors of the paper ‘History of the restoration of adenovirus type 4 and type 7 vaccine, live oral in the context of the DODacquisition system’ (Hoke CH Jr1, Snyder CE Jr., ScienceDirect, 2012)​.