Announcements
New Staff
No new staff have been employed since March 2010.
Awards
2010 February
EVI and its partners awarded contract by EC – entitled
European Network of Vaccine Research and Development (TRANSVAC)
This four year project with a budget of €9 900 000, which officially started on 1 October 2009, has thirteen consortium members.
The overall objective is to accelerate the pharmaceutical and clinical development of promising vaccine candidates for public health use. This will be achieved by bridging the gap between academic research and early phase clinical development through carefully managing the advancement of promising vaccine candidates from preclinical animal experiments to proof-of-principle studies in humans.
The specific objectives are the creation of an enabling environment for:
1) Unrestricted exchange of experience, expertise and know-how between partners
2) Enhanced communication with other related projects through networking
3) Transnational access to physical infrastructures and services owned by the project partners
4) Joint execution of research and development activities to enhance and improve current infrastructures provided by the project by developing trans-diseases research programmes, in order to optimise the non-disease specific knowledge
5) Coordination of European vaccine research in synergy with on going global co-ordination efforts, by setting up accompanying measures for the creation of the European Vaccine Development Agency, which is expected to be set-up at the end of the current project, if the political support from European Member States and European Commission materialises.
The kick off meeting was held in January 2010 in Brussels.
2009 November
EMVI and its partners awarded contract by EDCTP - entitled
Integrating capacity building and networking in the design and conduct of Phase I and II clinical trials of viral vectored candidate malaria vaccines in East and West African children and infants Malaria Vectored Vaccines Consortium (MVVC).
The four year project with a budget of €9 543 310 has several African partners and is coordinated by EVI. Start date 1 November 2009.
The overall objective of the project is to develop a safe, non-reactogenic, effective and affordable malaria vaccine for use by the malaria endemic populations of the world. The project also aims to integrate capacity building and networking in the design and conduct of Phase I and II clinical trials of viral vectored candidate malaria vaccines in African children and infants.
2009 September
EMVI and its partners awarded contract by EC – entitled
Initiative on Optimising Malaria Vaccine Lab Assays Evaluation (OPTIMALVAC)
The three year project is coordinated by EMVI with thirteen partners and an EC contribution of €1 000 000.
The current lack of some level of harmonisation of practices coupled with the lack of an enabling environment for comparing research results and relevance of vaccine and rationale leads to scepticism of results and general uncertainty as to the efficacy of vaccines. The overall goal of the project is to develop harmonised assays to facilitate comparison of results and improve decision making on discovery and concept development and rationale, product characterisation, down selection of candidates and/or formulation, and clinical development plans. OPTIMALVAC now has its own web site www.optimalvac.eu
2009 June
EMVI and its partners awarded contract by EC – entitled
Optimisation of the development of Poverty-Related-Diseases (PRD) vaccines by a transversal approach, addressing common gaps and challenges (INYVAX)
The three year project , coordinated by EMVI, has eight partners and a budget of €932 335.
The development of vaccines against poverty-related diseases faces several common gaps and challenges, including difficulties in accessing know-how and technology platforms in vaccine development, formulation, and delivery; difficulties in harmonising safety data collection and an insufficient number of trained scientists able to undertake leadership roles in vaccine development.
Funding
2009 December
EVI has signed a contract with the University of Lausanne (P27A)
The contract is for the GMP production of P27A by ALMAC Services, UK, a Phase Ia Clinical Trial of P27A plus Immuno-monitoring of the Phase Ia trial. The contract, which has a budget of €1 483 450, will last for 30 months.
2009 July
EMVI has signed a contract with the University of Oxford
The contract is for the construction of AdCh63 CSP and MVA CSP and the GMP manufacture of both constructs, plus Phase I clinical trials and immuno-monitoring of the trials. The contract, which has a budget of €1 261 000, will last for 30 months (CSVAC).