Sanofi Pasteur to fund the Human Vaccines Project

Sanofi is to partially fund the Human Vaccines Project, a non-profit partnership aiming to solve the primary problems impeding vaccine/immunotherapy development

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, has signed an agreement with the Human Vaccines Project to partially fund the non-profit, public-private partnership convening leading academic researchers and industrial partners to solve the problems that are hampering vaccine/immunotherapy development by "decoding" the human immune system.

Sanofi Pasteur is supporting the project by providing research funding to oversee, coordinate and conduct the scientific and administrative activities of the Human Vaccines Project research program this year.

The funds will be used to launch and execute pilot studies, build partnerships with and across the stakeholder community, and set up the infrastructure and operational support for the Human Vaccines Project research program.

The Human Vaccines Project, which Sanofi said has been endorsed as potentially transformative by 35 of the world's leading vaccine scientists and was incubated at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), seeks to raise £649m ($1bn) over a decade.

Jim Tartaglia, Sanofi Pasteur's R&D vice president for new vaccine projects, said: "Sanofi Pasteur is proud to join this effort to accelerate and transform vaccine development for major and emerging infectious diseases as well as to better understand human immunology, which may be applicable toward disease management of other chronic disease states.

"The Project's partnerships with industrial and non-profit product developers are key to ensuring that technological breakthroughs are rapidly translated into new products."

As a member of the industry advisory committee, Sanofi Pasteur will provide input on the Human Vaccines Project research program, review both published and unpublished data and participate at various scientific workshops to be held by the project.

Sanofi Pasteur will be represented by R&D vice president for translational science and biomarkers Kent Kester, who said: "A better understanding of human immunity holds the key to accelerating the vaccine and immunotherapy development for complex global diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, emerging infectious diseases and cancers.

"And since vaccines are among the greatest successes in the history of public health, having led to the eradication of smallpox, near eradication of polio, prevention of 2-3 million deaths per year, and dramatic reductions in human suffering and healthcare costs, the Human Vaccines Project makes sense for all of us."