Pfizer-funded vaccine research centre launches in Bristol

A centre of excellence for studying vaccine-preventable diseases has been launched in Bristol. The centre is funded by coronavirus vaccine manufacturer Pfizer and is the second of a global network of sites to launch, and the first outside the US. The Pfizer Centre of Excellence for Epidemiology of Vaccine-preventable Diseases, based at the University of Bristol, will undertake research to support the design, development and use of next-generation vaccines. The pharmaceutical company said it had invested an initial £4.6m into the centre to conduct surveillance studies in hospitals and the community to “identify and measure the burden of specific vaccine-preventable infectious diseases affecting adults, including the elderly, as well as children”. The centre will be led by Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the university as well as director of the Bristol Vaccine Centre and lead at Bristol UNCOVER (Bristol Covid Emergency Research Group). UK Government Health Secretary Matt Hancock visited the centre’s research laboratories on Tuesday to meet virologists Dr Andrew Davidson and Dr David Matthews.