This past October marked the completion of the first 12 months of PROMISE! A fruitful time in which the Consortium has mainly focused on kick-starting the project and setting up the planned studies.
PROMISE kicked off November 1st, 2021, with the objective of taking a major leap forward in the fight against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in Europe and worldwide. This initiative builds on RESCEU’s (Respiratory Syncytial Virus Consortium in Europe) achievements, another IMI project focused on generating insights into the impact of RSV on healthcare systems and society. RESCEU finalised at the end of October 2022, now PROMISE takes the baton with the mission to continue advancing scientific knowledge on RSV to better inform public health strategies and to support the development and introduction of novel immunisations tools and therapeutics against this potentially deadly virus in the paediatric and elderly populations.
PROMISE takes the baton with the mission to continue advancing scientific knowledge on RSV to better inform public health strategies and to support the development and introduction of novel immunisations tools and therapeutics against this potentially deadly virus in the paediatric and elderly populations
During the first year of PROMISE, we are proud to share that the progress on a number of fundamental activities has been very relevant. These included;
- Advances in the study of RSV epidemiology , including the advances in the literature review to propose novel and simplified clinical scores to assess RSV severity as well as the summary report on variation in global RSV seasonality by subtype.
- RSV surveillance from both public and industry perspective where operational considerations for respiratory virus surveillance in Europe during winter 2022-2023 were discussed.
- Clinical validation studies including patient recruitment progress for case-control studies, retrospective and prospective data collection protocols.
- Validation of RSV biomarkers studies including sample processing, transcriptomic and microbiome analyses.
- Submission of 12 Deliverables and achievement of 7 milestones
- Launch of Immunisation awareness campaign 2022 and RSV awareness campaign 2022.
- PROMISE has contributed to increase patients voice through the PAB.
Next steps
During the next few months PROMISE will:
- Finalise the report on global impact of COVID-19 on RSV burden.
- Start publishing the Fortnightly Electronic RSV bulletin on RSV activity.
- Develop a protocol for a phase IV field trial of RSV vaccine / mAb and finalise this after broad-based consultation with key stakeholders.
- Continue RSV patient recruitment for the clinical studies. Clinical data generated and sample collected as part of the clinical validation studies will be made available for product effectiveness studies and biomarker studies.
- Continue with the biomarker validation work such as the study on mucosal biomarkers or IgA in serum.
- Perform metagenomics and metabolomics testing on gut and lung microbiome samples collected in the PROMISE infant case-control study.
“I am proud of our achievements during the first year of PROMISE, especially the focus on patient involvement.”
Louis Bont, PROMISE Project Co-coordinator (UMC Utrecht)
“Building upon RESCEU’s partnership and results, PROMISE was able to achieve a lot in its first year, despite the challenge of an evolving RSV epidemiology. This sets a solid foundation for the remaining 18 months, packed with activities and deliverables.”
Charlotte Vernhes, PROMISE Project Leader (SANOFI)
PROMISE aims at better informing public health strategies and to support the development and introduction of novel immunisations strategies.
