The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is partnering with pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur and the nonprofit Infectious Disease Research Institute to create a new organization dedicated to advancing disease fighting technologies.
The Global Health Vaccine Center of Innovation, or GHVCI, will operate out of IDRI’s headquarters in Seattle. It’s getting off the ground with a total of $9.5 million in grants both from the Gates Foundation and Sanofi.
The organization hopes to pull from IDRI’s expertise in designing vaccines, Sanofi position as a worldwide drug manufacturer and seller, and the Gates Foundation’s financial support to launch collaborative research projects aimed at broadening the availability of vaccines, particularly in developing countries.
A IDRI spokeswoman says scientists will begin meeting in Seattle in the coming months. First, all three organizations will work together to choose a particular disease to target. Then they’ll go out looking to collaborate with other health organizations already working in the space.
“We need a new model for vaccine development, one that enables us to rapidly produce vaccines at a lower cost,” said Steven Reed, founder and Chief Scientific Officer for IDRI. “The blend of the Gates Foundation’s knowledge of global health and Sanofi’s depth of vaccine development expertise is a perfect match for IDRI’s unique technologies and research and development engine, allowing us to take a new approach to vaccine development.”
