Stop TB Partnership

TBVI partner Peter Andersen wins prize for developing new TB vaccine

5 May 2011 - Copenhagen - Professor Peter Lawætz Andersen, a research partner and steering committee member of the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), has won the Novo Nordisk prize for his pioneering research on the development of vaccines against tuberculosis (TB).

The prize is awarded annually by the Danish Novo Nordisk Foundation as a reward for outstanding medical research or other research efforts that could benefit medical science.

Together with his research group at the Statens Serum Institut, Professor Andersen recently developed a vaccine (H56) that protects against infection and also stops those already infected from developing active TB.

"This is a recognition that new vaccines to combat tuberculosis are urgently needed," Professor Andersen said. "Through this prize I hope to create more awareness about this devastating disease that kills almost 2 million people per year, and the fact that without new vaccines TB cannot be eliminated."