HC Deb 06 March 1996 vol 273 cc294-5W
Ms Harman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into the relationship between vaccination and cancer prevention. [19222]

Mr. Horam

The Department of Health has not commissioned from central funds research into the relationship between vaccines and cancer prevention.

However, the Department of Health, Medical Research Centre, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Glaxo/Wellcome—a leading pharmaceutical company—have jointly set up the Edward Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research, with Professor Peter Beverley as its first scientific head.

The overall research strategy of the institute will be to improve understanding of the immune response and apply that knowledge to the development of new vaccines to prevent diseases resulting from infections and malignancies (cancers).