45 organizations join forces to better assess the benefits and risks of vaccines
Barcelona-based company Synapse is one of the coordinators of the 'Advance' project, which has received €10.7 millions in funding from the IMI.
By Biocat
A total of 45 organizations and companies from around Europe have launched a groundbreaking project for the advanced study of the benefits and risks of vaccines. Despite the fact that vaccines are subjected to rigorous safety testing before getting regulatory approval, efforts to monitor coverage, benefits and risks aren’t coordinated. In this regard, the project tackles the review, development and analysis of methods, databases and procedures to create an efficient, sustainable European framework to provide the necessary data to more quickly assess the benefits and risks of vaccines currently on the market.
The project is called Advance (Accelerated development of vaccine benefit-risk collaboration in Europe), will last five years and has a budget of €10.7 millions funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). The main stakeholders in this arena are participating, including the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as vaccine manufacturers, national public health and regulatory bodies, and academic experts.
The project will create tools to help professionals, public bodies and the general population make more informed decisions.
Advance is coordinated by the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, the University of Basel and the University Children’s Hospital Basel in Switzerland, GSK Vaccines —coordinating the vaccine manufacturers in the project— and the Catalan company Synapse Research Management Partners specialized in the management of R&D projects in the biomedical sector. Specifically, Synapse will provide support in monitoring the work plan, administrative, legal and financial management, as well as communication and sustainability of the project’s results. Currently Synapse is managing seven international R&D projects with funds from the EC and IMI.
Three other organizations from Spain are also participating in the project: the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices; the Vaccine Research Department of the Fundació per al Foment de la Investigació Sanitària i Biomèdica de la Comunitat Valenciana (Fisabio), as the research team associated with activities regarding good practices and codes of conduct; and the Public Health Institute of Navarre, which will contribute its experience in the impact and efficacy of vaccines for the flu, chicken pox and rotavirus, as well as other standard childhood vaccines.
IMI Executive Director Michel Goldman explained: “Collaboration between these diverse groups is very sensitive. By bringing them together around the neutral platform offered by IMI, ADVANCE is in a unique position to pave the way for a framework that will make it easier to rapidly assess the benefits and risks of vaccines. This would help maintain public confidence in immunization as a successful and effective public health tool to control infectious diseases.”
Press release (26 November 2013)