Birgitte Giersing | Unit head, vaccine R&D and policy
World Health Organisation (WHO)

Dr Birgitte Giersing is the lead of the vaccine Research, Development and Policy (RDP) unit in the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals (IVB) department at WHO.  The remit of the unit is to accelerate innovation, development, and policy formulation for priority vaccines for routine use, by facilitating strategic, evidence-based decision-making at the global, regional and country levels.  Birgitte also leads the secretariat for the TB Vaccine Accelerator -  a strategic initiative established by the Director General in 2023 to accelerate the development of and access to new TB vaccines. Birgitte has over 25 years of experience in vaccine product development.  Trained as a biochemist, she performed her post-doctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health, USA in malaria vaccine development and then moved to the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a program of the non-profit organization PATH in Washington DC. From PATH, Birgitte moved into vaccine development within the private sector with positions at both Emergent BioSolutions and Takeda Vaccines, working across a number of pathogens areas and vaccine platforms, before moving to WHO in 2015.