Current Challenges in Vaccine Delivery and Distribution

Jeffrey T Blue has been with Merck more than 28 years.  Through his career, Mr Blue has led the Vaccine Drug Product Development and New Technologies Department.   Mr Blue’s department is responsible for the development of both in-line and pipeline programs and spans both early and late-stage vaccine development.  Mr Blue has supported live virus, oncolytic, subunit, conjugate, and mRNA vaccines.  His department is responsible for technology transfer of the drug product formulation and process to the final commercial sites.   In addition to pipeline support, his department is also responsible for supporting novel innovative technologies for drug product development including new drying technologies, novel adjuvants, and alternative delivery for vaccines and biologics (i.e., Patch technology, ID and oral delivery, pulsatile and controlled release formulations, Lyospheres etc.).  Through his leadership, the innovative technologies are being advanced to clinical development and recently gained manufacturing support for implementation into Merck’s vaccine pipeline.   He has published multiple book chapters and various articles on vaccine drug product development and lyophilization.  Over the course of his career within Merck, he has championed the development and successful launch of Varivax®, Zostavax®, and ProQuad® vaccines.   He has also played an integral role in the development of the Ebola Zaire Vaccine that Merck has recently licensed (Ervebo®).  Mr Blue has been a key leader on multiple cross-functional teams, engaged in key integration teams for vaccine strategy, is involved in multiple due diligence activities and continues to champion external collaborations to advance Merck’s vaccine pipeline.  

Paul Jansen is currently working as a Drug Device Development Consultant.  He is also on the Board of Directors at Subcuject and sits on the Advisory Boards of Evoleen, Windgap & Kymanox. He was formerly Associate Vice President, Medical Device Development, Sanofi until his retirement in January 2017. Mr Jansen is a Professional Engineer with more than 30 years of experience in medical devices.  He completed his degree in mechanical engineering and has completed graduate work in biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto. Mr Jansen has extensive experience in the design, development, manufacturing and lifecycle management of medical devices. Mr Jansen has multiple patents to his name and has deep experience in the creation and management of intellectual property portfolios. He has successfully led teams that have developed and launched several award winning devices, including Lantus SoloStar the world’s most popular insulin pen injection device. In addition, he has expertise in the design and development of injection molding systems and electronic components.Mr Jansen has been a long time member of the International Standards Organization serving as Working Group Convenor and Expert on many work groups responsible for standards related to injection devices. Until January 2022 he was the Chair of Technical Committee 84, Devices for the Administration of Medicinal Products and Catheters.Mr Jansen and his wife live in Boston, Massachusetts. He has two adult children and 3 grandchildren. 

Derek O’Hagan is a Senior Advisor in R&D in GSK Vaccines, since 2018, and a GSK Fellow, since 2019. Prior to this he was the Global Head of Discovery Support and New Technology in GSK Vaccines. Until 2015, Dr O’Hagan was the Global Head of Vaccine Chemistry and Formulation Research for Novartis Vaccines. He has extensive experience on Vaccine Adjuvants, including R&D of those included in licensed products. Dr O’Hagan was a key member of the Team that established the program on RNA vaccines in Novartis, Cambridge, in 2009. He served on the Board of Scientific Advisors for the Controlled Release Society and is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Dr O’Hagan was awarded the Conference Science medal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1997, and the Young Investigator Research Achievement Award of the Controlled Release Society in 1999. He was also named as the ‘most inventive scientist’ in Chiron in 2004.