Support for development of and research on vaccines targeting cancer and cardiovascular diseases

Subject: Support for development of and research on vaccines targeting cancer and cardiovascular diseases

Press reports show that work is under way to develop vaccines that use mRNA technology to target cancer, cardiovascular diseases and autoimmune diseases.

It would seem that these new medicines could be on the market as soon as 2030.

Given the potential importance of such a medical discovery for the health of European citizens, I would ask the Commission the following questions:

1. How does it intend to support the medical research in this field?

2. Will it allocate specific funding to the research institutes to encourage production of these vaccines in Europe?

Submitted: 14.4.2023

Answer given by Executive Vice-President Vestager on behalf of the European Commission (8 June 2023)

1. Both the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7) (1) and Horizon 2020 (2) supported research on mRNA vaccines notably as part of a broad research portfolio into cancer immunotherapy (3).

Although the Commission does not plan research and innovation calls for proposals specifically on mRNA vaccines, Horizon Europe (4) offers funding opportunities to address vaccine research, targeting different diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Calls supporting research on vaccine development can be found under the Health Cluster (5), the Innovative Health Initiative (6) and the Mission on Cancer (7).

2. No dedicated funding is allocated under Horizon Europe to research institutes to encourage the production of these vaccines in Europe. Projects supported by Horizon Europe shall include a plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results. If the plan provides for the exploitation of the results primarily in non-associated third countries, the legal entities shall explain how that exploitation is still to be considered in the EU interest.

1 ∙ ⸱ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/seventh-framework-programme-2007-to-2013.html

2 ∙ ⸱ https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-2020_en

3 ∙ ⸱ IACT: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/602262/reporting; MERIT: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/601939/reporting; SUMMIT:

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/789256

4 ∙ ⸱ https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe_en

5 ∙ ⸱ https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe/cluster-1-health_en

6 ∙ ⸱ https://www.ihi.europa.eu/ . For example topic HORIZON-JU-IHI-2022-01-03: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-

tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-ju-ihi-2022-01-03 7 ∙ ⸱ For example, see Mission Work Programme 2023: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-miss-

2023-cancer-01-01