The EDUFLUVAC consortium annual meeting took place last 15-16 October at iBET
October 17, 2014
EDUFLUVAC was awarded ~€ 4.5 million by the European Commision (EC) to develop a broad-spectrum and long-lasting vaccine against influenza. The innovation brought by this project lies in the development of a combinatorial immunization strategy which aims to “educate” the immune system to cross-recognize common regions within multiple strains of influenza viruses and which is expected to confer better protection against epidemic influenza. The development of a “universal” influenza vaccine will offer the tremendous advantage of not requiring the production of a “seasonal” influenza vaccine every year and eliminate the need for annual vaccination campaigns.
The EDUFLUVAC consortium is a true public-private partnership comprising seven leading global organisations from Europe involved in vaccine development. The three-year project brings together two research intensive small and medium enterprises from Switzerland and Portugal – Redbiotec and iBET - Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica – and a biotechnology company from Italy – ETNA – with prominent researchers from two Dutch institutes – the Biomedical Primate Research Centre and the Central Veterinary Institute – and the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in the United Kingdom. Finally, EDUFLUVAC is coordinated by Europe’s leading Product Development and Partnership in vaccine development, the European Vaccine Initiative, headquarted in Germany.