Arto Palmu | Chief Research and Medical Officer
FVR – Finnish Vaccine Research | FVR – Suomen rokotetutkimus

Arto A. Palmu, MD, PhD, university lecturer in clinical epidemiology, specialist in public health medicine Currently: Chief Research and Medical Officer, FVR - Finnish Vaccine Research, +358 505497113. arto.palmu@fvr.fi Dr Palmu’s key research interests are in pneumococcal and influenza infections and their prevention by vaccines, and he has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Recently, he has also published on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and vaccine safety and SARS-CoV2 serology. With a strong background in infectious diseases and public health, his primary expertise is on clinical trials and register-based research, and he has been pivotal in the development of pragmatic vaccine field trials using the combination of clinical trial design with real-world evidence (RWE) from the national health registers. Dr Palmu graduated from the Medical University of Tampere in 1993 and has worked as a researcher at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) based in Tampere since 1995. Since April 2022, he joined the FVR - Finnish Vaccine Research Ltd as the Chief research officer. FVR was established to merge THL commercial vaccine research group and Tampere University teams working on clinical vaccine research conducted in collaboration with the vaccine manufacturers. Now FVR is a leading organization dedicated to advancing vaccine research and development. Arto A. Palmu was the primary coordinator and co-investigator for the pivotal Finnish Invasive Pneumococcal (FinIP) disease vaccine effectiveness trial which was the first RCT to measure the effectiveness of PCV10 against IPD in a real-life situation and the largest trial ever conducted in children using pneumococcal vaccines. He was the principal investigator in the Finnish pragmatic trial of high-dose influenza vaccine (FinFluHD trial) and has also led register-based research projects on the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases and the impact of vaccines in reducing this burden. He is continuing this work and pursuit for better public health as a dynamic leader and innovator in the field of advancing vaccine science.