The Foundation for Vaccine Research was launched by “fourteen leading scientists and advocacy experts in vaccines and infectious diseases…to advance and accelerate vaccine research and development against infectious diseases.” The new foundation will be headquartered in Washington, DC. With the mission to “raise global awareness of the need for increased, long-term, flexible funding for vaccine research against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases, including neglected tropical diseases, as well as universal vaccines for influenza and a vaccine to avert pandemic influenza.”

The Foundation’s activities “will focus on persuading opinion leaders, policymakers inside and outside government, and other decision makers of the benefits and safety of vaccines and the merits of increased investment in vaccine research. The Foundation will seek to mobilize resources internationally and on a large scale to finance vaccine research globally, with a special focus on securing new assets and the development of innovative financing mechanisms. The Foundation will also conduct televised fundraising events and benefit concerts, with 100 percent of publicly donated funds going directly to teams of scientists and their institutions. The Foundation will also engage with the anti-vaccine movement to persuade them of the benefits of vaccines.”

The leadership of the new Foundation includes:

– Galit Alter, PhD, Assistant Professor in Medicine, Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University; Director, Ragon Institute Imaging Core; Director, Harvard Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Immunology Core, Boston, USA

– Patrice Debre, MD, PhD, Professor of Immunology, University of Pierre and Marie Curie, Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, Paris, France

– Jose M. Gatell MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Senior Consultant & Head, Infectious Diseases & AIDS Units, Clinical Institute of Medicine & Dermatology, Founder and Co-Director of the Catalan HIV Vaccine Project (HIVACAT), Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, University of Barcelona, Spain

– Peter Hale, Founder, The It’s Time Campaign, Washington, DC, USA

– Sylvie Le Gall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University; Director, Ragon Institute Education and Training Platform, Boston, USA

– Ronald C. Desrosiers, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Director, New England Primate Research Center, Boston, USA

– Willem Hanekom, Professor of Immunology; Co-Director, South African TB Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa

– Professor Gregory Hussey, Deputy Dean: Research, Faculty of Health Sciences; Founder and Director, Vaccines for Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa

– Paul A. Offit, MD, Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA

– Gregory A. Poland, MD, MACP, FIDSA, Mary Lowell Leary Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; Director, Mayo Vaccine Research Group; Director, Translational Immunovirology and Biodefense; Editor-in-Chief, VACCINE; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

– Mauro Schechter, MD, PhD, Professor of Infectious Diseases, Head, Projeto Praca Onze, Hospital Escola Sao Francisco de Assis, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Guillaume Stewart-Jones, PhD, Principal Investigator, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK

– Professor Simon Wain-Hobson, PhD, Chief, Molecular Retrovirology, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

– Robin A. Weiss, PhD, Professor of Viral Oncology, Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, UK

The Foundation said it will incorporate the “It’s Time Campaign,” an advocacy and campaign organization based in Washington, which will become a program of the new Foundation and its main fundraising arm. The Foundation said it will also finance vaccine research directly. Funding sources will include the It’s Time Campaign’s internet-based campaign, televised fundraising events, benefit concerts, and other initiatives undertaken by the Foundation.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scientists-launch-vaccine-research-foundation-123459359.html