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Vaccine Research, World Health Organization (WHO)
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Dr Birgitte Giersing is the lead for vaccine Research, Development and Policy (RDP) unit in the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals (IVB) department at WHO. The remit of the unit is to accelerate innovation, development, and policy formulation for priority vaccines by facilitating strategic, evidence-based decision-making at the global, regional and country levels. The RDP unit includes two of the advisory committees to IVB, namely the Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee (PDVAC) and WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE). Birgitte's role is to oversee the strategic direction of the unit. It includes establishing new tools and mechanisms to identify vaccine R&D priorities, and to effectively partner with country, regional and global immunization stakeholders to develop consensus on aspects related to vaccine development and policy. In addition, Birgitte leads the secretariat for the TB Vaccine Accelerator, championed within WHO by the new ADG for Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Control, Dr Jeremy Farrar. Birgitte has been at WHO for just over 11 years, and has over 25 years of experience in vaccine product development. She trained as a biochemist and performed her post-doctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health, USA in malaria vaccine development. She moved to the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a program of the non-profit organization PATH in Washington DC, where she oversaw the development and evaluation of several preclinical and early-stage malaria vaccine candidates. From PATH, Birgitte moved into vaccine development within the private sector with positions at both Emergent BioSolutions and Takeda vaccines, working across a number of pathogens areas and vaccine platforms. |
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| Declarations of Conflict of Interest | |
