PIPELINE
Recent epidemics have highlighted how infectious disease outbreaks can severely and sometimes uniquely affect the short and longer-term health of pregnant people and their infants. Nevertheless, as observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, these groups are invariably excluded from pandemic preparedness and response research.
The PIPELINE consortium aims to develop a dedicated pregnancy-infant preparedness platform for adaptive trials to improve epidemic and pandemic preparedness for these underserved populations.
It aims to reduce the health burden of disease through more effective management, achieve improved preparedness of health systems to respond to health emergencies, reduce citizens' risk of, and increase their knowledge about health threats of epidemics and pandemics.
PIPELINE represents a significant step forward in advancing our understanding of how to protect and treat pregnant people and infants during health crises," said Prof. Carlo Giaquinto, PIPELINE Coordinator.
Objectives
PIPELINE's efforts focus on establishing a multi-country adaptive trials platform to support innovative diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics for infections during pregnancy and infancy. This platform is designed to pivot rapidly in response to emerging health threats. To achieve this, PIPELINE will create and sustain a responsive, "warm-base" clinical trial network specialising in recruiting pregnant people and infants, utilising adaptive trial designs.
As a proof of concept, PIPELINE will undertake an adaptive platform trial on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) immunisation in pregnant people and infants, addressing a critical public health priority for the EU.
Ecraid will be at the helm of this clinical research, providing its extensive trial management expertise.
Collaboration
Led by the Penta Foundation, PIPELINE is a multidisciplinary collaboration of 16 organisations across six countries with a proven track record in maternal and infant health research. They will leverage and strengthen existing networks to maximise Europe-wide outreach.
Ecraid will contribute to the design and implementation of the preparedness platform and facilitate building the PIPELINE site network. A team of experienced project managers will lead the PIPELINE RSV trial operations, including site monitoring and coordination with other partners.
By fostering collaboration across Europe and utilising cutting-edge methodologies, PIPELINE aims to improve the health of pregnant people and infants and strengthen capacity for future research in this critical area.
The consortium is funded through the Horizon Europe work programme Health Destination 3: Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden (2023/4) for a period of 4 years starting on 1 January 2025.