NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) today announced it will join the Human Vaccines Project (the Project), a public-private consortium focused on cross-sector collaboration to identify human immune responses associated with optimal vaccine protection. Insights gained will guide the development of potentially improved vaccines against diseases such as influenza, dengue, HIV and other infectious illnesses as well as cancer.
“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. 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,” said Kathrin U. Jansen, Ph.D., senior vice president and head of Vaccines Research & Development at Pfizer. “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.”
One of the key challenges in vaccine development is the lack of understanding of the rules of effective immunity, and how to generate such responses through vaccines and immunotherapies in key global populations. Applying the latest in biomedical technologies, the consortium will have the potential to identify the fundamentals of immunological protection which could lead to the development of new and improved vaccines, immunotherapies, and diagnostics. Led by the Human Vaccines Project, the partners will help shape the Project’s research agenda which will be carried out by a global network of leading universities, with strong linkages to biopharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer capable of rapidly translating research breakthroughs into potential new products.
“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,” said Wayne C. Koff, Ph.D., founder of the Human Vaccines Project. “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.”
About the Human Vaccines Project
The Human Vaccines Project is a non-profit public-private partnership with the mission to accelerate the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against major infectious diseases and cancers by decoding the human immune system. The Project, incubated initially at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has a growing list of partners and financial supporters including: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Pfizer, Regeneron, GSK, Aeras, MedImmune, Sanofi Pasteur, Crucell/Janssen, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Project brings together leading academic research centers, industrial partners, nonprofits and governments to address the primary scientific barriers to developing new vaccines and immunotherapies, and has been endorsed by 35 of the world’s leading vaccine scientists.
Pfizer Inc.: Working together for a healthier world™
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of healthcare products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer healthcare products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. For more information, please visit us at www.pfizer.com. In addition, to learn more, follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer_News, LinkedIn, YouTube, and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer.
Pfizer Disclosure Notice
The information contained in this release is as of March 22, 2016. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this release as the result of new information or future events or developments.
This release contains forward-looking information about the Human Vaccines Project and Pfizer’s role therein, including their potential benefits, that involves substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development; whether the Human Vaccines Project will be successful and whether the anticipated benefits thereof will be realized in the anticipated timeframe or at all; whether or when any potential new product candidates or technologies will result from Pfizer’s participation in the Human Vaccines Project; and competitive developments.
A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in Pfizer’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 and in its subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections thereof captioned “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Information and Factors That May Affect Future Results”, as well as in its subsequent reports on Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov and www.pfizer.com.
