How Syneos Health and VBI Vaccines delivered a new kind of partnership model

For millions of people around the world living with infectious disease and cancer, the arrival of a new prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine on the market can be life changing. But in order for a treatment to reach patients, it needs to be launched.

Commercialising a vaccine, even one that targets an unmet need, is a challenging task for companies. To bring therapies and medicines to patients with unmet needs, forming new strategic partnerships can be key, giving smaller organisations access to the information, resources, and reach needed to support a vaccine launch. Finding the right partner is not always a smooth process, but as Lee Taurman, executive vice president, global head of full-service commercial, Syneos Health, and Jeff Baxter, president and CEO for VBI Vaccines, discuss, exploring non-traditional partnership models can open up even greater opportunities to advance public health efforts.

To illustrate how such a partnership model can help companies to thrive, Baxter and Taurman share their experience of industry collaboration, and detail how Syneos Health and VBI Vaccines took a somewhat unconventional approach to prepare for the launch of VBI’s 3-antigen hepatitis B vaccine in the US, Europe, and Canada.

The challenge: commercialising prophylactic vaccines

Hepatitis B (HBV) is one of the world’s most significant infectious disease threats, with an estimated 296 million people chronically infected with HBV globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It is up to 100 times more infectious than HIV, and while there are approved prophylactic vaccines available, there is currently no cure. • Read the full article in pharmaphorum's Deep Dive digital magazine