Within the last decade, Vakzine Projektmanagement GmbH (VPM) has successfully managed and consulted the development of promising biopharmaceutical candidates, ranging from small molecules, recombinant proteins up to gene-modified live vaccines and ATMPs. VPM brought these products for its customers in the pharmaceutical industry, academic research and small biotechnology companies, from preclinical phase through clinical phases I-III.

Since 2012 VPM has started its consulting and service business. Based on its in-depth experience and a strong network of reliable partners, VPM offers tailor-made hands-on services and consultancy. The clients are small, medium and large biopharmaceutical enterprises, as well as private funding organizations, and research groups. The consulting and service offers refer to the entire product development value chain as VPM has experienced and successfully mastered each of these value points for itself.

Since July 2018 Serum Institute of India (SIIPL) is majority shareholder of VPM. SIIPL is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally (more than 1.3 billion doses) which includes Polio vaccine as well as Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccines. Vaccines manufactured by SIIPL are accredited by the World Health Organization, Geneva and are being used in around 170 countries across the globe in their national immunization programs, saving millions of lives throughout the world. The acquisition through SIIPL provides VPM and its clients a direct link to cost-effective GMP manufacturing.

Since the foundation of the company, VPM has also developed five own products and focused its resources then on the three main products: a) a bladder cancer immunotherapeutic (VPM1002BC), b) a novel tuberculosis vaccine candidate (VPM1002), and c) a CMV vaccine (VPM2001). These products have a combined target market of more than 6 billion Euros. All three products have been successfully out-licensed to pharmaceutical companies including R&D contracts to further pursue with the development.

Founded originally in August 2002, VPM was established following an initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to promote the development of vaccines in Germany. Scope of the vaccine initiative was the funding of rapid transfer of results from basic research into the development of new vaccines. The BMBF provided VPM with 25.6 million euros funding between 2001 and 2010 to organize and finance the preclinical and clinical development of vaccines nationwide. To this end, VPM acquired proprietary rights to promising vaccine candidates from public German laboratories and managed their development until further licensing to industrial partners. In order to identify such promising vaccine candidates in Germany, a map of vaccine research with the associated technologies for research and development of vaccines was drawn up at the beginning of the BMBF funding and updated in 2006.