Ole Frilev Olesen

Ole Frilev Olesen

Affiliate Professor

Ole F. Olesen is affiliated professor af the department of Global Health, Institute for Public Health at Copenhagen University, where his main studies focus on the impact of changing disease patterns, global health investments and health research capacity building. Ole also acts as Executive Director of the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), which is a non-profit organization that develops new and improved vaccines for emerging and poverty-related diseases through collaboration with an extensive network of academic and industry partners in more than 30 countries across the world. Ole has studied at the universities of Aarhus, Denmark and Cambridge, UK, as well as at Copenhagen Business School, and he holds a PhD degree in Molecular Biology and an HD degree in international economics. Ole has worked for 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry as group leader and later as Global Project Director for pre-clinical and clinical development of vaccines and injectables. He has considerable work experience in conducting and managing large international projects on pharmaceutical product development. Ole worked as Director of International Cooperation at the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), and Principal Scientific Officer for Global Health at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research & Innovation. 

Primary fields of research

Vaccine development for emerging epidemic and poverty-related diseases, impact of changing disease patterns on global health, global health investments, health research capacity building. 

Current research

Vaccine development for COVID-19, vaccine development for placental malaria, vaccine development for tuberculosis, global health research collaboration, health research capacity building, health research systems in low- and middle-income countries in primarily sub-Saharan Africa, impact of health research investments in sub-Saharan Africa 

ID: 216905085