Good question. I understand the vaccine field as follows

- childhood vaccination - largest market in terms of units, but the lowest margin. Though there is ample room for improvement, the vaccine would get any improvement any time soon, given the low cost of the vaccine, its complexity (if a component is changed, the entire vaccine needs to go through costly clinical trials), and the oligopoly character of the market, thus VLPs are not likely find any use there any time soon

- flu vaccine - second largest market in terms of units, and probably largest in terms of sales. The vaccine is not really optimal (yearly shots), but the problem is probably rather in the antigens and antigenic drift of the pathogen then in the vaccine construction. VLPs have some place there, but due to the cost limit per shot are not likely to take larger part of the business here in the near future

- vaccines for tropical diseases and HIV - the vaccine cost should be as low as possible to make it acceptable in low income countries, precluding wider application of the (relatively costly) VLPs

- speciality vaccines (all other) - there is ample room for VLPs and other novel principles. These vaccines would probably be pioneering the way for VLPs into the other vaccine types provided there is clear price/performance benefit.

Hi

One of the biggest problems of VLP is lack of immune activation in generating a robust B-cell IgG response, coupled with a specific T cell response. Without some kind of TLR or cytokine signalling responses tend to be on the weak side when injected systemically

@Bruce Thanks for a comment. I haven't mentioned the biomedical problems on purpose, it's not just weak immune activation, but there's more to this - misfolding, incorporating the antigens into the particle, selection of the right antigen or subset of antigens, you name it. While the technical problems can be overcome this or the other way, it is the economy of the sector to pose stringent limitations on the widespread use of the technology.

The most common problems associated with the design / use of viral particles as vaccines are the variability of the beliefs and the possibility of emergence of vaccine strains of infections and their negative impact on the T-link immunity and on the immune system of the cells as a whole

I am just curious to know whether any of you has tried VLP vaccines using integrating nonviral vectors?