At this year’s World Vaccine Congress in Washington we were privileged to meet some of our vaccine experts, to hear their insights and learn more about their work. In this interview we speak to Q² Solutions‘ Dr Luc Gagnon, who serves as Global Head of Vaccine Sciences. We were glad to meet Dr Gagnon to learn about his team’s work serving the vaccine community. Q² Solutions describes their work as “turning hope into help”, starting with the patient and using a combination of three critical approaches to provide a “competitive edge”: industry-leading science, partnership approach, and innovative solutions.
Addressing challenges
Dr Gagnon kindly gives a bit of context to the team’s “years” of experience in the vaccine industry, drawing on colleagues from various organisations to “generate a highly expert group supporting vaccine development”. He identifies a key challenge that they are addressing as we emerge from the pandemic:
“To be able to keep the pace with the current, new way of working.”
A lesson for everybody
As Dr Gagnon mentions the pandemic, we ask about how he and his team is coming out of it, taking any relevant lessons or changes on board.
“The pandemic was a lesson learnt for everybody in a sense that before the pandemic the turnaround time to deploy a vaccine was about ten years, between eight and ten years, and now we have seen with the Moderna and Pfizer of that world, that the turnaround time is way faster and it has to answer the demand of the planet.”
Dr Gagnon highlights that other threats are continuing to emerge.
“That’s the new reality, so not only the manufacture has to be faster, but all the supporting groups as well.”
He and his team are changing the “modus operandi” but continuing to support developers with quality:
“Science being accelerated.”
On the horizon
Our penultimate question invited Dr Gagnon to look ahead and share his expectations for the company in the future.
“Instead of being passive and waiting for the request, we are more proactive and scouting the planet and developing assays.”
Furthermore, Dr Gagnon suggests that his organisation is “an extension” of its sponsors.
“It’s really how we can ease their life, in the filing of those molecules of their monoclonal antibodies, their vaccines.”
Why WVC?
Finally, we asked Dr Gagnon to share his intentions or hopes for his time at the event. He reflects on the importance of strengthening bonds with sponsors who have been attracted by the team’s “global reach”. He also intended to “gather and scout” information on new diseases, and understand how to improve his way of working with new technologies.
It was great to meet Dr Gagnon and learn about the way that he and the team are supporting and driving innovation. You can head to their site here to find out more!
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