March 20, 2024
IPOPI joined VACCELERATE’s Workshop on interpandemic vaccine trials
VACCELERATE is an EU-funded research consortium tasked to conduct clinical trials on vaccines to prepare the EU for the next pandemic. The aim is to identify and conduct valuable clinical trials to be performed in the interpandemic period, which should increase preparedness and swift refocusing capacities once a new epidemic or pandemic arises.
IPOPI was invited to VACCELERATE’s Workshop in Cologne on 18-19 January as the need to include vulnerable patient populations, such as PID patients, in these clinical trials was recognised and involvement of patient representatives from an early stage was sought.
The workshop was organised in different breakout brainstorming sessions to allow multiple topics to be discussed by the relevant experts simultaneously. IPOPI took part in the session on “Vaccine trialists and research topics”, highlighting several reasons to prioritise PID patients for enrolment in vaccine clinical trials and proposing specific topics of interest to be researched in this population (e.g., viral persistence, young age groups, different PID subsets and vaccine response, vaccines against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, …).
During general discussions with all participants, the need to develop a patient engagement and communication plan was underscored, as was the role of patient representatives to help develop such plans. The presence of IPOPI at the meeting was therefore highly appreciated.
A white paper will be produced outlining the first takeaways from the workshop.
