ENDOWMENT FUNDS – ACTORS4HEALTH

Our vision:
“Health solutions for everyone, everywhere.”

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What’s Actors4Health?

The Actors4Health endowment fund was established in December 2020 at the initiative of 6 founding members, includingIABS-EU, the European Affiliate of the International Alliance for Biological Standardization – IABS..

  • Support for research and the development of an appropriate regulatory framework for biological medicines intended for humans and animals: The fund aims to support activities or projects of general scientific interest, particularly in the fields of research and regulatory science, in order to contribute to the scientific advancement of medical biology for the benefit of all living beings.

To this end, the endowment fund supports, in particular, the activities of general interest carried out by the International Association for Biological Standardization in Europe – IABS-EU.

  • Projects Committee: In 2021, a selection committee for supported projects was established, consisting of five independent scientific experts from 4 European countries.
  • Operational Management:The endowment fund is overseen by a board of directors composed of 6 members appointed by IABS-EU.

Founding Members

Projects Committee

Board of Directors

Our means of action

Bringing together

Unify key stakeholders in the biological sector to create the conditions for constructive dialogue among manufacturers, researchers, and regulatory institutions, for a common major issue: human and animal health.

Enabling suitable regulation

International conferences and workshops facilitent dialogue, guide decision-making, and accelerate the availability of biological medicines.

Sharing

We contribute to the improvement and innovation of biological medicines by sharing scientific advancements through the Biologicals scientific journal and the IABS website.

Among the projects

The general themes supported by the endowment fund are:

• human vaccines,
• veterinary vaccines and biological medicines,
• cell and gene therapies,
• biotherapeutic medicines,
• and diagnostic tools.

In particular, for the period 2023 to 2025:

New methods to replace animal testing

Gene therapy for the treatment
of genetic diseases

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT):
your stool has the power to save lives

The war against microbes: phage therapy to combat antibiotic resistance

CONFERENCES SUPPORTED BY THE ENDOWMENT FUND

The Actors4Health Endowment Fund is committed to supporting scientific excellence and innovation in health.It supports research projects, publications, and conferences that foster dialogue among researchers, industry professionals, and regulatory authorities.
Discover here the initiatives and conferences that the Fund has had the pleasure of supporting.

New methods to replace animal testing

Preparedness and Response to Emerging Veterinary Disease Outbreaks

AMONG OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

Correlates of Protection for COVID vaccines

bringing vaccines to patients is a lengthy process. Clinical trials take a big part of it. Vaccines which are licensed have not only proven safety and efficacy in clinical trials, they also generate important data on immune proflling, like antibodies and cellular immunity which are in correlation with protection. In almost all cases, one or two vaccines are not enough to cover the needs of everybody everywhere. If we find a way that newcomers can proof that they develop the same or similar amount of antibodies and/or cellular immunity as the already approved vaccine(s), the clinical trials can by shortened tremendously and access to vaccines increased for all with numbers of years. IABS is working on this.

New platform technologies

Actors4Health facilitates the creation of a regulatory framework that enables the use of the technology platform approach. Allowing quicker vaccine development. If a vaccine is licensed based on one technology platform, mRNA for example, the same platform can be used to develop a vaccine against other diseases. In that case, these “follower” vaccines can use the common parts of the file without being obliged to redo all the trials. This represents a gain of time and investment to increase access to vaccines for pandemics and diseases for which no vaccine exists today.

Establishing standards for vaccine testing

The quality of vaccines is tested against validated standards to assure that vaccines reach at least the quality of well-known standards. The production and availability of widely accepted standards is a key factor for global access to quality vaccines. We promote and support the establishment of such standards to not only assure access to vaccines but also guarantee their quality everywhere.

Reducing the use of animals for release of vaccines to the market

Since decades, vaccines are released to the market after safety and efficacy testing in animals. These animal tests are costly, lengthy, moderately, and badly reliable and pose a huge burden on animal welfare. In many cases these animal tests can be replaced by in vitro laboratory tests which are much more precise and reliable, short in time and less costly shorting time for access to vaccines and antibodies and increasing global access.

Quality specifications for biologicals

As in the case for Standards, there is a large array of specifications in vaccine, antibody and cell production that must be complied with to assure the quality of the products. Understanding and complying with the specifications assures robust production processes, high quality and increased access and comparable quality everywhere.

NGS (New Generation Sequencing)

Allows to guarantee the quality attributes of biologicals and their purity in a very short time with the highest precision. It allows further reduction of the use of laboratory animals. NGS increase speed of quality assurance and by this way access for all to high quality vaccines, antibodies and cell therapies.

Innovation

l’innovation permet de développer des vaccins et autres produits biologiques contre des maladies qui étaient encore totalement mortelles il y a une dizaine d’années: sans nouvelles plateformes technologiques, pas de nouveaux vaccins contre le COVID, RSV (bronchiolite des enfants) et autant d’autres à venir tels les progrès importants dans le domaine de l’immunothérapie et la thérapie cellulaire des cancers. Notre première priorité est l’innovation : anticiper l’impact des nouvelles technologies et assurer leur accès partout à tous les patients.

Cell and gene therapy

Actors4Health is active in supporting cell and gene therapy developments and regulatory processes so that they profit to cancer patients.

Autogenous vaccines for livestock

Animals can be victim of infectious diseases for which no cure nor vaccine exists. In some cases, the solution exists in isolating the germ causing the disease in the farm and make a vaccine out of it for use in the farm. Very often this leads to the solution of the disease problem. We promote the establishment of rules on safety and efficacy specifically adapted to this kind of vaccines.

ACTION MODE OF ACTORS4HEALTH TO REACH THOSE OBEJCTIVES :

By bringing together within each area of expertise, whether governmental, scientific, regulatory, industrial, or quality assurance, world-renowned specialists recognized as leaders in their fields in human or veterinary health, our role is to guide them toward reaching a consensus on the most relevant solutions. The conclusions are published in free access and serve to adapt regulations resulting in better access for all to quality vaccines, antibodies and other biologicals.

In participating at Actors4health meetings, each participant behaves independently. As such, these meetings generate a better understanding of the problems and challenges faced by each stakeholder.

THEY SUPPORT US

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR DONORS

Tesmionial

Alain Mérieux
President of the Mérieux Institute
and the Mérieux Foundation

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CONTACT

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24, rue Baldassini
69007, Lyon, France
+33 (0)4 87 77 18 01
secretariat@actors4health.org