The administration of a vaccine (also called an ‘active vaccine’) results in an immune response consisting of antibodies and/or immune cells that can prevent or treat an infection or disease. A vaccine can be administered prophylactically for prevention before occurrence, or alternatively as an immune-therapeutic for treatment of an ongoing disease. Immunotherapeutics, such as monoclonal antibodies, may be used for intervention in various indications such as cancer, immunological diseases such as inflammation and autoimmunity, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Adjuvants are used to increase immunogenicity for many commercial and experimental vaccines, both prophylactic and immunotherapeutic, thus promoting their successful development. Increased immunogenicity can result in various clinical and commercial benefits such as development of indications for which no sufficiently protective vaccine exists, increased percent responders, increased responses in impaired subjects, dose-sparing, more user-friendly regimens by decreasing the number of doses, and increasing cross-strain protection.