The executive director of the Pasteur Network, Rebecca Grais, visited Fiocruz on Thursday (2/6) to discuss an even greater role for the Foundation in 2025. Received by president Mario Moreira at the Moorish Castle, she met with members of the Office, the Fiocruz Global Health Center (Cris/Fiocruz), and the Immunobiological Technology Institute (Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz) to see what this participation might look like.

Rebecca Grais met with Mario Moreira and other members of Fiocruz at the Moorish Castle (photo: Pedro Linger)

Elected last year as the Network's regional representative for the Americas, Mario Moreira recalled that the Foundation has been playing an increasing role, having co-organized the Pasteur Network Annual Meeting (PNAM 2024) last October, in Rio de Janeiro.

"Rebecca Grais came to bring to the table the prospects for greater action by Fiocruz, as a leading institution in the network's institutional development process," said the Foundation's president.

Rebecca Grais and Mario Moreira met with the vice president for Research and Biological Collections (VPPCB/Fiocruz), Maria de Lourdes Oliveira; the special advisor to the President, Wilson Savino; and coordinator Pedro Burger; international advisor for Cooperation with Europe, Ilka Vilardo; and advisor for Global Health, Paula Reges, all from Cris, to discuss plans for the year.

"Due to its prominence and importance in Latin America, Fiocruz can have an even greater contribution," said the executive director, recalling that the Foundation was chosen to lead the Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC) on Flaviviruses [1], a global initiative that covers pathogens linked to dengue, zika, yellow fever and West Nile fever.

"And the Pasteur Network, led by Fiocruz, can play an important role in supporting this initiative. That is the first point. The second is to ensure that all of Fiocruz's offers and vast, long-standing experience in training and education can also contribute and be known by the other members of the Network. And the third point is to further develop our relationships, which we started last October when Fiocruz hosted the network's annual meeting on vaccine research, development, innovation and manufacturing. We started this collaboration by analyzing messenger RNA platforms, but we hope to continue this further within the Network," said Rebecca Grais.

Part of the group joined the Foundation's vice president for Health Production and Innovation (VPPIS/Fiocruz), Marco Krieger, and the Competitive Intelligence advisor to the Bio-Manguinhos board, Beatriz Fialho, in a virtual meeting with Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (Cepi).

"We are now discussing with Cepi's CEO how this Network can collaborate in the global health effort, especially from the perspective of preparing for and responding to health emergencies and pandemics," said Moreira. "Fiocruz is very committed to strengthening the Pasteur Network and is fully aware of its leading role in its development.