Translational Advances in Infectious Disease Therapy

Abstract

Infectious disease therapy has entered a period of rapid innovation driven by mRNA vaccine technology, novel monoclonal antibody platforms, host-directed therapeutics, and engineered phage therapy for multidrug-resistant infections. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated translational pathways for mRNA vaccines and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, demonstrating that novel platform technologies can compress vaccine development timelines from decade-plus to under one year when regulatory, manufacturing, and clinical infrastructure align. The question for post-pandemic translational medicine is which of these accelerated models can be sustained and extended to other infectious disease domains where innovation has been chronically slow. We evaluated five translational pathway frameworks applied to 162 infectious disease therapeutic programmes across 22 European academic and industry sites between 2012 and 2024, covering bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic pathogens. Frameworks ranged from conventional antibiotic development through fully integrated platform technology programmes with pandemic preparedness infrastructure. Performance was benchmarked using our Infectious Disease Therapeutic Translation Score (IDTS), integrating time-to-approval, clinical effectiveness, resistance management, implementation reach, and pandemic preparedness capability. The platform technology framework achieved the highest IDTS (0.914), reducing median time from programme initiation to regulatory approval from 8.4 years to 3.2 years and enabling rapid vaccine development for novel pathogens within 6-12 months. mRNA vaccine platforms, monoclonal antibody platforms, and phage therapy platforms exemplified successful integrated translation, while conventional small-molecule antibiotic development remains translationally slow despite clear medical need.