After many months of intensive preparatory work following a competitive call process, the Respiratory Syncytial Virus Consortium in Europe (RESCEU) was launched in January 2017. The RESCEU project aims to develop robust evidence on RSV disease burden and economic impact; create a sustainable Europe-wide multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder community from academia, public health, scientific societies, patient organisations, regulatory agencies and industry; and provide infrastructure to perform future pivotal trials for RSV vaccines and therapeutics. RESCEU represents a major research effort of 29 million euro, and receives funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking, supported by the European Commission and EFPIA.
The launch meeting was held in Sitges (Spain) and it was a memorable occasion to have about 100 participants from key stakeholder constituencies (RSV researchers ranging from epidemiologists and clinicians to more basic scientists; Public Health Agencies like ECDC, US CDC and WHO; esteemed members of our International Scientific Advisory Group, Patient Advisory Board and the Ethics Advisory Committee; agencies like EMA and PATH; funding agencies like BMGF; and our IMI project officer) all participate wholeheartedly during the two-day meeting. The discussions were of very high quality and the enthusiasm was infectious. The Consortium is fully committed to sustain this positivity and make sure that we can achieve the objectives of RESCEU.
