Danish vaccines initiative aims to fight deadly airborne infections
First of its kind
The initiative is the first global initiative to focus solely on understanding how to generate immunity in the airway itself. This is a potentially revolutionary and the overall aim is to block infection, and prevent airborne diseases spreading between humans.
Research at the NNF Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI) will focus initially on TB, influenza, and Group A Streptococcus (GAS), which overall is responsible for more than 2.5 million deaths per year. While most vaccine development initiatives focus on a single strategy, NIVI will compare different vaccine antigens, platforms, and delivery methods side by side, and thereby increasing the chances of success. In the case of delivery methods, for example, various strategies will be tested and combined, including conventional injection in the muscle, and nasal sprays.
Additionally, NNF has established a limited liability company – the Novo Nordisk Foundation Vaccine Accelerator (NVAC), to enable and enhance the research of NIVI, by licensing and developing vaccine technologies, preparing vaccine formulations, reagents and assays, and coordinating the external clinical-grade production and clinical testing of promising vaccine candidates. Any revenue generated by NVAC will be reinvested in NIVI.
National and international partnerships
Collaboration with public and private actors will be crucial to the initiative’s success. A key partner will be the governmental public health and research institution Statens Serum Institut (SSI), which operates under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health. SSI has substantial expertise in vaccine design and development, and highly relevant research programs and infrastructure. Other national as well as international partnerships with world-leading research teams and experts with similar ambitions will also be established in the coming years. It will be the role of NVAC to seek manufacturing partnerships to ensure that promising new vaccines have real-world impact and are accessible and affordable.
“It’s really interesting, that NNF is increasing their focus on infectious disease research and development even further. Since the Corona pandemic, it has been a wish for NNF to strengthen this area in Denmark, as well as internationally, and in 2021 NNF therefore brought in the former director of the Center for Vaccine Research at SSI, Professor Peter Lawætz Andersen, to lead the efforts in infectious medicine at NNF. This new vaccine imitative will significantly improve the already strong ecosystem and scientific environment within vaccinology in Denmark. And the likelihoods for successful outcomes from the new NNF initiative are very high, as Denmark in general are innovative in our R&D and have excellent collaboration between the public and private sector“.