Hilleman Labs Partners With Future Vaccine Manufacturing Hub

Hilleman Laboratories to collaborate with Imperial College London, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK) and other premier international bodies towards low-cost vaccine manufacturing.

Hilleman Laboratories, an equal joint-venture partnership between MSD and Welcome Trust, is one of the key partners of the new Future Vaccine Manufacturing Hub led by Imperial College London. The hub has been established to increase immunisation coverage across the globe and improve the response to disease outbreaks through the rapid and cost-effective deployment of vaccines. £10 million of funding has been granted by the UK Department for Health, and will be managed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Davinder Gill, CEO Hilleman Laboratories said, “We are honoured to collaborate with Imperial College London and EPSRC in the United Kingdom. We are gratified with this collaboration, which will help us develop our competences through international partnerships. As a partner in manufacturing research projects, we are truly hoping that the new Vaccine Manufacturing Hub will increase immunisation coverage around the globe and respond to disease outbreaks with safe and cost-effective vaccines. It will allow us to invest in innovation more effectively to explore high-quality vaccines & technologies.”

The hub will collaborate with the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturing Network on manufacturing projects in India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Uganda and China. Integrated approaches that will be explored by researchers at the Hub include the development of synthetic RNA vaccines which can be rapidly manufactured; the rapid production of yeast and bacterially-expressed particles that mimic components of pathogenic viruses and bacteria; and protein stabilisation to preserve vaccines at high temperatures, avoiding the need for refrigerated distribution and storage.