On the 22nd of May, the European Union inaugurated its new European Vaccine Hub (EVH) in Siena, Italy, marking the culmination of a one-year effort to establish a European centre for public vaccine development, trials and manufacturing. The EVH aims to bolster the continent’s readiness for future pandemics, drawing critical lessons from the COVID-19 crisis, which highlighted the urgent need for rapid vaccine development and deployment.
Funded with €102 million by the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) under the EU4Health program, the EVH unites European leaders in vaccine development and pandemic preparedness programmes, among them the Pasteur Institute or the German Center for Infection Research.
Its goals include the capacity to develop vaccines prototypes within four months of a new pathogen’s identification, establish efficient deployment strategies, spearhead preclinical and clinical trials, and guarantee unimpeded public access to new vaccines.
Crucially, the Union also seeks to bolster its vaccine sovereignty. Despite a net positive trade balance for COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, the EU remained dependent on extra-EU imports amounting to €7.8 billion the same year. The EVH seeks to ensure that Member States can protect their citizens against health threats without reliance on extra-EU partners.
Hadja Lahbib, Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, emphasised this point:
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