Sophie Biernaux

Sophie Biernaux dedicated most of her professional life to the development of vaccines for LMIC. With a PhD in Immunology, Sophie Biernaux led for 30 years numerous vaccine programs at GSK Biologicals, from discovery phase to registration and vaccine deployment, covering a broad spectrum of populations and vaccine indications.

Her first major accomplishment was the full development of the DTPa and DTPw combined vaccines franchise until registration by the FDA and EMA. She then created within GSK and led for 10 years a team dedicated to the development of vaccines for diseases of the developing world. The main programs were vaccines for tuberculosis, HIV, Ebola, but most importantly malaria. She drove the Mosquirix malaria vaccine program from pre-clinical stage to registration by the EMA, pre-qualification by the WHO and preparation of phase IV studies with the WHO. During that period, she established and co-directed partnerships with PATH and BMGF in close collaboration with the WHO. This Public Private Partnership was novel and a unique collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and the non-for-profit sector. Scientists, clinicians, and authorities from sub–Saharan African countries were heavily involved in that partnership project.

Since 2017, Sophie acts as consultant in vaccine development to not for profit organizations, for example as project leader for CEPI and with the Welcome Trust.