European support for rapidly advancing vaccine development

European Commission renews funding to support vaccine innovation via European research infrastructure Vaccines are one of the most successful and cost-effective public health tools for disease prevention. Their development though is time-consuming and complex, requiring a combination of specialised skills and technical capacities not readily available at a single organisation. In order to facilitate access to these skills and capacities and to promote collaborations in the European vaccine landscape – aiming thereby to accelerate the development of safe, effective and affordable vaccines – the European Commission (EC), in the context of the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, recently committed significant funding to TRANSVAC2, a European vaccine research and development (R&D) infrastructure. Dr Odile Leroy, Executive Director of the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) and coordinator of TRANSVAC2, comments: “The TRANSVAC2 activities will further strengthen the vaccine R&D infrastructure in Europe and will thereby accelerate the development of effective vaccines that are urgently needed to...