5th Steering Committee Meeting of COVend

Last week, on the 24th of April, 40 consortium members of 11 project partners gathered for one day to hold the fifth Steering Committee Meeting in Zurich, Switzerland to discuss the state of play of the project and define the next steps. These are the highlights from this productive in-person meeting.

The project coordinator, Prof. Kai Zacharowski (MD PhD ML FRCA FESAIC) opened the meeting and highlighted the importance of genuine collaborative work towards advancing the FX06 therapy against capillary leak, addressing currently critical clinical needs, and preparation for the pandemic, before handing over to the leaders of the scientific work packages, presenting their progress, challenges and next steps.

Work package presentations on the project progress

The afternoon was dedicated to discussing the management and implementation of the IXION clinical trial in more detail. The COVend Project Innovation Manager, Petra Wülfroth (F4 Pharma), and WP3 leader, Tanja Rossmanith (Fraunhofer), presented the consortium with strategies for recruiting patients for the IXION study. Despite the progress made, the main obstacle to the COVend project remains the lack of COVID-19 patients to conduct the clinical study. Therefore, the consortium discussed various options to overcome this challenge. The discussion was both successful and productive.

Closing the work package session, Anastasiia Aksonova (accelopment Schweiz AG) and Johanna Keim (Goethe University Frankfurt) presented WP8 (communication, dissemination, exploitation) and Andreia Cruz (accelopment Schweiz AG), Elina Nürenberg-Goloub (Goethe University Frankfurt), and Petra Wülfroth (F4 Pharma) covered WP1 (management). Besides presenting the overall current progress of the project and means to ensure smooth project management and reporting to the European Commission, the WP8 leads also introduced effective approaches to project results dissemination activities.

Ending the day with a Zurich lake cruise and a joint traditional Swiss dinner with fondue, the consortium members had the chance to engage in some long-awaited networking – and discuss an upcoming in-person meeting destination – Dublin, Ireland.

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Thank you to all COVend project partners for attending and enriching the meeting with thoroughly well-prepared presentations and discussions.