The move aims to increase immunisation coverage across the globe and improve the response to disease outbreaks through the rapid and cost-effective deployment of vaccines
Global vaccine R&D organisation Hilleman Laboratories has announced its collaboration with Imperial College London, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK) and other premier global bodies to become one of the key partners of the new Future Vaccine Manufacturing Hub, which has been established to increase immunisation coverage across the globe and improve the response to disease outbreaks.
“We are honoured to collaborate with Imperial College London and EPSRC in the United Kingdom. We are gratified with this collaboration, which will help us develop our competences through international partnerships,” said Dr Davinder Gill, CEO Hilleman Laboratories.
“As a partner in manufacturing research projects, we are truly hoping that the new Vaccine Manufacturing Hub will increase immunisation coverage around the globe and respond to disease outbreaks with safe and cost-effective vaccines. It will allow us to invest in innovation more effectively to explore high-quality vaccines and technologies,” Dr Gill added.
Based in Delhi, Hilleman Laboratories is an equal joint-venture partnership between US drug maker MSD and global charitable foundation Wellcome Trust.
The Future Vaccine Manufacturing Hub aims to address two major challenges facing creation of future vaccine manufacturing systems — how to design vaccine production systems that can produce tens of thousands of new doses within weeks of a new threat being identified and how to improve current manufacturing processes and change the way vaccines are manufactured, stabilised and stored so that existing and new diseases can be prevented effectively, at reduced costs.
The UK Department for Health has granted a 10 million pound funding to the hub, which will be managed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The hub will collaborate with the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturing Network on manufacturing projects in India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Uganda and China. It will also work closely with African Vaccine Manufacturers Initiative (AVMI) to maximise dissemination of knowledge.
Integrated approaches that will be explored by researchers at the hub include the development of synthetic RNA vaccines which can be rapidly manufactured; the rapid production of yeast and bacterially-expressed particles that mimic components of pathogenic viruses and bacteria; and protein stabilisation to preserve vaccines at high temperatures, avoiding the need for refrigerated distribution and storage.
The hub is led by Imperial College London, and also involves the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Nottingham, Cranfield University, the Clinical Biotechnology Centre (CBC) as part of NHS Blood and Transplant, UK National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, CPI and National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC).
