NEW YORK (January 14, 2016) -- The Human Vaccines Project is pleased to announce that Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi and one of the world’s largest vaccine companies, has joined its global consortium.
Sanofi Pasteur will provide funding for the Project while joining its Industry Steering Committee supporting the Project’s goal to accelerate the development of vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancers. Sanofi Pasteur becomes the fourth company to join the Project.
“The Human Vaccines Project has established a unique public-private partnership model with transformative potential for prevention and control of major global diseases of the 21st century, by engaging industry from the outset together with key stakeholders from academia, governments and non-governmental organizations,” said Wayne Koff, Co-Founder of the Human Vaccines Project and Chief Scientific Officer of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). “We are very pleased that Sanofi Pasteur brings its wealth of experience in vaccine R&D to help guide the Project as it addresses the key scientific challenges impeding development of next generation vaccines and immunotherapies.”
By harnessing recent technological breakthroughs from genomics, systems biology and bioinformatics, the Project is establishing a global consortium to undertake an ambitious, decade-long, milestone-driven scientific plan to “decode the human immune system.” This will include: 1) Deciphering the “Human Immunome,” the parts list of the immune system, providing a vital open resource for the scientific community to facilitate next generation vaccine discovery; 2) Elucidating the “Rules of Immunogenicity,” the optimal immunization strategies required to prevent and control major infectious and neoplastic diseases; and 3) Optimizing “Immunologic Fitness” in heterogeneous global populations including infants, the elderly and immunocompromised to usher in a new era of vaccine development and cancer immunotherapy.
“Combining breakthroughs in biomedical technologies under a milestone-based scientific effort carried out by leading global research organizations, the Human Vaccines Project has the potential to change how we protect against and treat some of our most devastating diseases,” commented Stanley Plotkin, Emeritus Professor of the University of Pennsylvania and Chairman of the Human Vaccines Project Scientific Steering Committee.
Sanofi Pasteur joins GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Medimmune, and Crucell (one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson) as industrial partners of the Project.
#######
About the Human Vaccines Project
The Human Vaccines Project is a non-profit public-private partnership with the mission to accelerate the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against major infectious diseases and cancers by decoding the human immune system. The Project, incubated initially at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, GSK, Aeras, MedImmune, Sanofi, Crucell/Janssen and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The Project brings together leading academic research centers, industrial partners, nonprofits and governments to address the primary scientific barriers to developing new vaccines and immunotherapies. The Project has been endorsed by 35 of the world’s leading vaccine scientists. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is the first of several scientific hubs at leading global academic research centers that will carry out the Human Vaccines Project’s Scientific Plan.
Media Contact:
For the Human Vaccines Project: Ted Schenkelberg, tschenkelberg@humanvaccinesproject.org, +1.646.441.0894
