PATH, the Seattle-based global heath nonprofit, is opening a new Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access, funded initially through an $11 million dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Within its vaccine program, PATH focuses on getting children, particularly those living in low-resource or remote settings, access to vaccines. The new center, with operations primarily in PATH’s existing offices in Seattle and Washington, D.C., will take vaccines through all stages from development to delivery, including laboratory research, clinical trials, regulatory approval, storage, and transportation.
PATH’s goal with the initiative is to accelerate the development and distribution of vaccines to children in order to stop deaths from preventable diseases. PATH’s vaccines and immunizations have reached billions of people around the world to date.
Right now, PATH has more than two dozen vaccines at different stages of development or use. They target the leading causes of children’s deaths worldwide —pneumonia, diarrheal disease, and malaria — and other global health priorities, like polio and meningitis. In the future, PATH hopes to use its center to address newer and rapidly-evolving disease threats, including Ebola and Zika Virus.
“We are committed to developing vaccines and related technologies that meet the needs of those living in the lowest-resource settings,” said Dr. David Kaslow, who has been appointed the new head for the Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access, in a statement. “The new center will bring together PATH’s expertise across the entire vaccine development and introduction process, from preclinical research on novel vaccine concepts to regulatory approval and policy review, from design and conduct of field trials to innovative approaches for new vaccine introduction.”
PATH works with communities and local health authorities in more than 70 countries. It also has partnerships with donors, regulators, heath officials, and pharmaceutical and device manufacturers worldwide.
