RESPIRATORY DISEASES, A STEP FORWARD FOR RESEARCH IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TUBERCOLOSIS

Stockholm, 17th September 2007 – This year’s winner of the ‘Maurizio Vignola’ Award, given by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and supported by the Chiesi Foundation, is a young English researcher based in Cambridge. The award was presented during the Annual Congress in Stockholm, where more than 16,000 experts were gathered. This year’s focus in the respiratory disease area, in addition to asthma and COPD, was on pulmonary tuberculosis, an infection affecting 5 in every 100,000 Italians and of widespread concern owing to its ability to produce drug-resistant strains. It is a current issue worldwide - more than 1,600,000 deaths are caused each year by this infection - and as a result, the ERS has decided to award a young researcher who stands out for his brilliant studies on the immune response to the mycobacterium. The 2007 edition of the ‘Maurizio Vignola’ Award, consisting of a 20,000 Euro grant offered to the ERS by the Italian Chiesi Foundation, has been assigned to Rodrigo Andres Floto, who works for the Medicine Department of the Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Cambridge University, developing his research on immune system mechanisms in response to infections by mycobacterium tuberculosis, and in particular bacterial replication and diffusion.

“The ‘Maurizio Vignola’ Award is one example of how public and private can work together to promote progress in research and the growth of young specialists to improve patients’ health”, explains Professor Leonardo Fabbri, President Elect of the ERS and Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. “Clearly, the fact that most research is financed by private resources may generate ethical concerns, mainly linked to possible conflicts of interest.” A concern to which the ERS has turned its attention this year, as the Society has begun setting up bilateral meetings between its leadership and the heads of a number of pharmaceutical companies in order to study these aspects and promote a public-private collaboration to achieve a synergy of the respective human and economical resources. “The European Community has recently initiated a project, the Innovative Medicine Initiative - confirms Professor Fabbri -, in which 2 billion Euro will be allocated for the next 10 years, shared equally between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry, to fund academic research for the identification of therapeutic targets for widespread diseases. In this initiative, the ERS is an important interlocutor with the scientific community.”
“Rodrigo Andres Floto is a young researcher who has already published various articles in the most prestigious international journals. Furthermore, he possesses a CV of a very high standard. The choice of the winner was complex - adds Professor William MacNee, President of the ERS and Director of the Edinburgh Lung and Environment Group Initiative Colt Laboratory -, since the participants presented a very high profile on average. This induced us to consider only those papers published in journals with an impact factor higher than 10, and therefore not only specialist publications but also those targeting a wider medical public.”
“The purpose of the Award and of the Foundation itself is to further its three driving values - continues Dr. Paolo Chiesi, President of the Chiesi Foundation, Vice-President and Director of Research & Development at Chiesi Pharmaceutics -. Passion and curiosity fuelling research into new products; the ability to quickly transform new ideas into technologies and therefore into new drugs ready for approval and commercialisation in as many countries as possible; and finally, an awareness of the value and importance of human resources for the realisation of any plan. The Foundation was set up in 2005 in order to contribute to the diffusion of scientific knowledge in research areas of pivotal interest and social concern, such as neonatology, respiratory diseases, cardiology, within a broader context than is usual for a pharmaceutical company.”
“Maurizio Vignola, who died of leukaemia in December 2004, was without doubt the most brilliant and original researcher in the field of Italian respiratory medicine - explains Professor Fabbri -. His papers have been published in the most prestigious journals and rewarded him with the esteem, trust and, thanks to his unique personality, friendship of the international scientific community.”