SHIGETECVAX Consortium Convenes Final Project Meeting

The SHIGETECVAX consortium held its final project meeting on 24 March 2026. The virtual event brought together scientific, clinical, and strategic partners from Europe, Asia, and the United States, dedicated to advancing an oral vaccine candidate against Shigella and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC).

Project partners from Eveliqure Biotechnologies, icddr,b, the European Vaccine Initiative, the University of Gothenburg, and PATH reflected on significant achievements accomplished since project inception and outlined the remaining steps in the project.

A major milestone celebrated at the final meeting was the near‑completion of the Phase 1b age‑descending clinical trial in the endemic population in Bangladesh: a study designed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the ShigETEC vaccine candidate in increasingly younger participant groups. Immunological analyses are currently underway, and the consortium is now focusing on final data cleaning and preparation of clinical study reports.

Partners also noted major progress in formulation development, having identified both a heat‑stable, fast‑dissolving formulation suitable for use in low‑resource settings. This development is considered an important step toward enabling broader global access, particularly among vulnerable paediatric populations disproportionately affected by diarrhoeal disease.

Building on the data generated by the SHIGETECVAX consortium, Eveliqure Biotechnologies recently entered a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with the Serum Institute of India to support future development and manufacturing of the ShigETEC vaccine for paediatric use, underscoring the growing global momentum behind the candidate.

The SHIGETECVAX consortium leaves behind a strong foundation for future development: robust clinical data, a viable heat‑stable formulation, strengthened global partnerships, and a clear pathway toward the eventual availability of a much‑needed oral vaccine to reduce the global burden of diarrhoeal disease.

Members of the project’s Scientific and Ethics Advisory Committee (SEAC) were present at the final meeting and provided valuable scientific and ethical guidance as the project entered its concluding phase. Committee members commended the consortium on its strong collaboration, scientific rigor, and successful execution throughout the project’s lifecycle, formally congratulating the full team on the achievements reached.