The Denmark-based Novo Nordisk Foundation has announced DKK 1.8 billion ($260 million) to establish a research and vaccine development initiative.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI) will focus on some of the deadliest respiratory diseases, including tuberculosis (TB), influenza, and group A streptococcus (GAS). Developed in partnership with the University of Copenhagen, the initiative will be the first vaccines initiative globally to focus solely on understanding how to generate immunity in the airway itself.

To that end, NIVI aims to develop new vaccines for TB, influenza, and GAS that generate robust, local immunity in the airways and, by extension, limit the spread of antimicrobial resistance, a global pandemic driven in part by the overuse or misuse of antibiotics against airway infections. The foundation also established a limited liability company—the Novo Nordisk Foundation Vaccine Accelerator—which will enable and enhance the work of Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Vaccines and Immunity (NCVI).

“The development of the COVID-19 vaccines demonstrated the extraordinary possibilities when interdisciplinary vaccine research and development are prioritized,” said Novo Nordisk Foundation CEO Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen. “With NIVI, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the University of Copenhagen are building on that momentum and dreaming even bigger, working towards a world where respiratory diseases no longer end the lives of millions of people every year.”

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