A potential disruptive technology in vaccine development: gene-based vaccines and their application to infectious diseases.

Vaccine development requires an amalgamation of disparate disciplines and has unique economic and regulatory drivers. Non-viral gene-based delivery systems, such as formulated plasmid DNA, are new and potentially disruptive technologies capable of providing 'cheaper, simpler, and more convenient-to-use' vaccines. Typically and somewhat ironically, disruptive technologies have poorer product performance, at least in the near-term, compared with the existing conventional technologies. Because successful product development requires that the product's performance must meet or exceed the efficacy threshold for a desired application, the appropriate selection of the initial product applications for a disruptive technology is critical for its successful evolution. In this regard, the near-term successes of gene-based vaccines will likely be for protection against bacterial toxins and acute viral and bacterial infections. Recent breakthroughs, however, herald increasing rather than languishing performance improvements in the efficacy of gene-based vaccines. Whether gene-based vaccines ultimately succeed in eliciting protective immunity in humans to persistent intracellular pathogens, such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, for which the conventional vaccine technologies have failed, remains to be determined. A success against any one of the persistent intracellular pathogens would be sufficient proof that gene-based vaccines represent a disruptive technology against which future vaccine technologies will be measured.