Officials with the Healthcare Leadership Council recently emphasized the organization's ongoing opinion that vaccines are the most powerful and effective approach for health care intervention that is currently available to modern medicine.
The council held a briefing on May 5 at Capitol Hill. Attendees spent the meeting time discussing various innovations for vaccines. Such innovations sustain the value that the health system and patients expect from vaccines.
Those in attendance included Jim Pannucci, vice president of Leidos Health Sciences; Len Friedland, vice president and director of scientific affairs and public health for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK); Bill Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development for Pfizer; and several others.
Friedland presented information about the novel methods of implementing compounds -- also named adjuvants -- to boost a patient's immune system as it battles against sicknesses. Using these compounds, GSK has been able to implement old technology with new approaches.
Gruber focused on whether government working groups should partner with other industry stakeholders in resolving various medical needs. These collaborations may also help to develop criteria for licensure that is needed to bring about the full potential of developing vaccines. In addition, the partnerships may be useful for the Target Product Profile (TPP).
Finally, Pannucci gave a presentation dedicated to the ways public-private partnerships offer more accessibility to a greater number of innovations. Combining the experiences of nongovernmental organization sponsors with collaborators and scientific crossover is important for developing vaccines.
