1 October 2011 - Lelystad, the Netherlands - The European Union has invested 30 million Euros in a new research program designed to accelerate the development of vaccines.
The Advanced Immunization Technologies (ADITEC) programme was set up by scientists from 42 research partners in 13 countries and aims to encourage the collaborative development of new immunization technologies.
"This is very important for the development of new vaccines against tuberculosis (TB)," said Jelle Thole, director of the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) and one of the architects of ADITEC. "New TB vaccines are urgently needed, because the only currently available vaccine is 90 years old and does not protect against pulmonary TB. The development of new TB vaccines has gotten back on track in the past 10 year and the new techniques that will be developed in this research programme will absolutely accelerate this process."
ADITEC partners include leading universities and research institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and the World Health Organization.