Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $3,500,000 over three years to the International Vaccine Institute to support a clinical trial led by Dr. Julia Lynch testing the safety of Hecolin, a hepatitis E vaccine, in children and HIV-positive adults. Hecolin is the only hepatitis E vaccine currently available. Open Philanthropy believes this work could generate data that would help to convince the World Health Organization to put it on one of its Lists of Essential Medicines, which would lead to it becoming more widely used.
This follows Open Philanthropy’s January 2022 support and falls within its focus area of scientific research, specifically within its interest in advancing human health and wellbeing.