Healthy ageing for Europe's future: the value of adult immunisation

A trained cardiovascular surgeon, Vytenis Andriukaitis practiced medicine for over 20 years before transitioning fully into politics. He is a co-author and signatory of the Independence Act of Lithuania and one of the co-authors of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania adopted in 1992.

Andriukaitis is a founding member and former Chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), currently serving as its Honorary Chairman. Andriukaitis was a long-serving member of the Lithuanian Parliament; he also served as Lithuania’s Minister for Health, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, where he championed numerous public health initiatives, and most recently as the WHO Special Envoy for Universal Health Coverage in the European region.

His extensive body of work includes over 140 legislative proposals and amendments at both the national and EU levels, along with numerous articles and books focused on health policy and European integration.

A career physician, Susie Barnes spent a successful 10 years in the UK’s NHS, working firstly in anaesthetics, and latterly as a general practitioner, before moving into the biopharma industry, starting at Servier Laboratories in the UK. Barnes has been working at GSK for 10 years in a number of LOC roles, including VP, Country Medical Director in Canada and Japan; and more recently took on the additional responsibility of leading the Development. During her tenure as Country Medical Director in Canada and Japan, she oversaw a number of successful launches of both medicines and vaccines, led a number of transformation initiatives and led GSK’s development strategy for their COVID monoclonal antibody, sotrovimab in Japan, bridging to global data and resulting in emergency approval and availability for patients.

Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra Kanani was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.

A political scientist, Peggy Maguire has worked at an EU and international level over the last 25 years, highlighting the need for gender equity in research, public health and social policy. She is responsible for policy and strategy for the European Institute of Women’s Health (EIWH). Prior to her role as Director General at the EIWH, Maguire was Director of Development at the National Maternity Hospital in  Dublin and Director of the Research and Education Foundation at the Irish College of General Practitioners. As part of her commitment to gender equality, Maguire has been a member of the WHO expert group on gender mainstreaming and contributed to the WHO Women’s Health Strategy for Europe. She is also the former president of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), and was appointed by the Minister for Health in Ireland her as co-chair of the Women’s Health Task Force. Maguire and the EIWH also recently launched the Women’s Health Interest Group in the EU Parliament in Brussels.

Prof. Dr. Pierre Van Damme is a full professor in Vaccinology at the University of Antwerp, leads the Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV), a WHO Collaborating Centre for the control and prevention of infectious diseases, and directs Vaccinopolis. With over 35 years of experience, he has led over 500 vaccine trials. Van Damme co-founded the European Plotkin Institute for Vaccinology to accelerate vaccine evaluation. He regularly advises national and international organizations and has chaired the European Technical Advisory Group of Experts for the WHO European Region. Van Damme is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine.