As of May 24, 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that approximately 777 million people worldwide had been infected with COVID-19 and that there had been around 7.9 million deaths. The international community has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic (source: https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/cases).
Dr. Taylor from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom reported in 2001 that 61% of infectious microorganisms and 75% of emerging infectious disease pathogens are zoonotic pathogens. Hence, it is considered important to understand the infection route of the pathogens. Five pandemics declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the past 100 years have been caused by respiratory pathogens, either influenza viruses or coronaviruses. Respiratory infectious diseases have more diverse transmission routes than other infectious pathogens, such as droplets, air, contact, oral, and environmental, and the transmission speed is high. Hence, the next pandemic will be likely caused by influenza viruses, coronaviruses, or other respiratory pathogens. Apparent from the experience with COVID-19, rapid development of vaccines and therapeutics is essential to overcome a pandemic. Therefore, establishing the system to rapidly develop vaccines and to practically deploy these within the community is an urgent need.
The Institute for Vaccine Research and Development (IVReD) is establishing a comprehensive pathogen library in anticipation of potential infectious disease threats, promoting fundamental research that contributes to vaccine development, and transferring the resulting outcomes to the Vaccine and Novel Modality Research and Development Program for societal implementation. This initiative represents a forward-looking pre-emptive strategy aimed at enhancing preparedness and response capabilities of the country.
Hokkaido University established the pioneering “Research Center for Zoonosis Control”, the predecessor organization of the current “International Institute for Zoonosis Control (IIZC)”, as the only institution specializing in zoonosis control. The IIZC is maintaining an influenza A virus library storing all subtypes. Furthermore, as a countermeasure against COVID-19, Hokkaido University is performing environmental, basic and clinical research throughout the University which has led to significant findings to lessen the disease burden. In addition, Hokkaido University is working on tuberculosis, which continues killing about 1.5 million people every year, through an established international collaboration network against tuberculosis. Based on the results of surveys on the prevalence of drug-resistant strains, new diagnostic methods have been developed and are being implemented in society.
IVReD operates under an “All-Hokkaido University” cooperative framework, uniting organizations on the same campus, including Hokkaido University Hospital (a clinical research core hospital), the Graduate School of Medicine, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Institute for Genetic Medicine, and the International Institute for Zoonosis Control. The institute also maintains strong partnerships with companies such as Denka Co., Ltd., Shionogi & Co., Ltd., and NB Health Laboratory Co., Ltd.
In addition, under SCARDA, IVReD integrates with Flagship Centers, Synergy Centers, support organizations, other universities and research institutes, as well as the international research and education network it has established to date, which includes the University of Melbourne. Through this integration, we promote basic research that contributes to the development and establishment of domestic vaccine production systems, by utilizing zoonotic pathogens primarily stored at Hokkaido University, that have been detected and isolated through epidemiological studies, with a particular focus on zoonotic infectious diseases.
In close collaboration with the Japan Institute for Health Security (JIHS) and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), IVReD is driving forward vaccine development. For the first time in Japan, a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus strain (H5N1 subtype) was isolated from a deceased red fox found in Hokkaido. This strain was transferred to the Research Center for Influenza and Respiratory Viruses at NIID, where a vaccine strain was developed.
In February 2024, this vaccine strain was selected at the WHO Vaccine Composition Meeting (VCM) as one of the WHO-recommended H5N1 candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs) originating from Japan. In May 2024, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare decided, at the Infectious Diseases Subcommittee of the Health Science Council, to stockpile it as a pre-pandemic vaccine strain. The pre-pandemic vaccine is now being produced by a pharmaceutical company.
(Reference : World Health Organization: https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/cases, )
Director of Institute for Vaccine Research and Development (IVReD)
Hirofumi Sawa