TECH NEWS: IT, TECHNOLOGY - EU wants safer vaccines

Friday, 24 May 2013 19:24

EU wants safer vaccines

EU grants 155 million to develop effective and safer vaccines. Swedish researchers participating in the project. Growth in the pharmaceutical industry is poor. The exception is the vaccine, where growth has been great. In Europe, vaccine factories have been built in Belgium as well as in Germany. To ensure that the next generation vaccines are effective and safer than it is today starting a five-year EU research project BioVacSafe. From Sweden, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and the Sahlgrenska Academy at Goteborg University.

Researchers will include identifying the cells, molecules and genes in individuals respond to different vaccines.

In a first step, it is about the development of immunological biomarkers that can serve as warning signals for vaccines in danger of over-reactive, says Ali Harandi, project manager at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

Other objectives are to increase the possibilities of identifying side effects of vaccines and to investigate how vaccines can interact with the immune system, especially when it comes to inflammatory reactions.

The project involves research institutes, small entrepreneurs and large pharmaceutical companies. A total of SEK 270 million in the project, 155 million from the EU through the program Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).