CHANTILLY, VA - This week saw attendees gather just outside Washington, D.C. for the 2010 World Vaccines Congress to discuss the latest in the vaccine world. Although some attendees couldn't attend because of the ash cloud over Europe, those who made it presented some very interesting material.
One of the highlights of the conference was the ViE Awards will be recognising the outstanding achievements of vaccine practitioners and stakeholders across the global industry. Sanofi Pasteur CEO Wayne Pisano faced stiff competition from Novartis' Andrin Oswald, Pfizer's Geno Germano and GSK's Biologicals' Jean Stéphenne, but managed to fend them off to take honors as top pharma exec of the year.
Accelovance, which recently added new team members as a result of continued growth, repeated as best CRO, beating out a number of top contenders, including Covance and PPD--tough competition indeed. PPD CMO Christine Dingivan tells FierceVaccines that the company is unique among CROs, as it has worked with governments in Africa, as well as South East Asia and Latin America. The company also recently launched its Vaccines & Biologics Center of Excellence, a first-in-kind comprehensive network of integrated, world-class laboratory services focused specifically on vaccine and biologic drug development. And just this week, it was announced that PPD invested $5 million in a round backing Liquidia Technologies to fund development of a new vaccine delivery technology (see related article).
Other award winners included Baxter for best CMO; Merck and Wellcome Trust for best vaccine partnership, alliance or license; Inovio for best early stage vaccine biotech; Intercell's Gerd Zettlmeissl for best biotech CEO; Novartis for best vaccine R&D pipeline; Dendreon's Provenge for best therapeutic vaccine in development; and GSK Biological's Synflorix for best prophylactic vaccine. - Liz Jones