Pfizer Inc. recently joined the Human Vaccines Project, which is a public-private consortium, to collaboratively detect the human immune system’s responses that are connected to the best vaccine protection.
By combining their resources, the two organizations will unite government, academic and industry partners to evaluate the various human immune responses to vaccines. The ultimate purpose is to accelerate immunotherapeutic and vaccine development.
“Over the last decade, we’ve seen unprecedented technological advances in our understanding of the biology of diseases and new tools in designing vaccines including therapeutic vaccines,” Kathrin Jansen, head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said. “Yet, the translation from preclinical to clinical vaccine research has often been hampered by a lack of understanding of the desired human immune responses required to obtain optimal vaccine protection. With our strong heritage of translating scientific findings into the development of medicines and vaccines, Pfizer is proud to contribute to the consortium’s research efforts.”
Scientists hope that understanding the immune system will help them to develop better vaccines for dengue, influenza, HIV and similar infectious diseases. As a result, they also hope to better understand, treat and prevent cancer.
“We look forward to Pfizer’s contribution to the Human Vaccines Project as we launch an unprecedented public-private partnership in human immunology discovery, to decipher the human immunome and principles of protective immunity, to usher in a new era in global disease prevention,” Wayne Koff, founder of the Human Vaccines Project, said. “The human immune system holds the key to preventing and controlling a broad spectrum of infectious diseases, cancers, autoimmune diseases and allergies. By bringing together leading vaccine researchers, institutions and biopharmaceutical companies -- and harnessing recent technological advances in molecular and cellular biology and bioinformatics -- the project may potentially enable accelerated development of vaccines and immunotherapies for some of the most devastating diseases of our time.”
