Pfizer Vaccines Launches Global Centers of Excellence Network to Conduct Real-World Research on Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Affecting Adults

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced today the launch of its Vaccines Division’s Centers of Excellence Network, a global program of collaborations with academic institutions to conduct real-world epidemiologic research to accurately identify and measure the burden of specific vaccine-preventable diseases and potentially evaluate vaccine effectiveness affecting adults. Pfizer Vaccines has designated the University of Louisville as its first Center of Excellence with a second global center anticipated in the first half of 2020.

“The Centers of Excellence will complete comprehensive, disease surveillance and real-world vaccine effectiveness studies, which are distinctly different from clinical safety and efficacy research,” said Luis Jodar, Pfizer Vaccines, Chief Medical and Scientific Affairs Officer. “With strategically located research centers around the world, we anticipate being able to better define and understand global disease burden in adults and vaccine effectiveness, which will help provide robust evidence to national policymakers and health officials who develop recommendations for the use of vaccines in immunization programs worldwide.”

As Pfizer’s first Center of Excellence site, the University of Louisville will initially conduct two separate, large population-based epidemiological studies in adults: a one-year study of the incidence of infectious diarrhea with funding provided by Pfizer up to $6.5 million and a one-year study of the incidence of pneumonia with funding provided by Pfizer up to $4.5 million.

“It is very difficult to find a city where all the health care institutions are collaborating in research, and Pfizer recognized there was something different happening in Louisville, Kentucky. Because of our unique citywide collaborations, when we measure the incidence of disease in Louisville, you can extrapolate and say if this disease happens this often in Louisville, we can then say this is the incidence in the United States. This becomes very important as we are trying to study disease and develop new interventions,” said Julio Ramirez, Chief of UofL Infectious Diseases and Center Director. “To develop a vaccine, it is important to understand the overall population burden of disease that the vaccine is going to prevent: How common is this illness? Who are the patients that are at higher risk? These are the questions we will be addressing with the types of studies we are going to be doing in Louisville, Kentucky.”