The Paul Ehrlich Institute (German: ''Paul-Ehrlich-Institut – Bundesinstitut für Impfstoffe und biomedizinische Arzneimittel'', PEI) is a German federal agency, medical regulatory body and research institution for

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.

and biomedicines. It was founded in 1896 and is subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Health. The institute is a WHO Collaborating Centre for quality assurance of blood products and ''

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called " test-tube experiments", these studies in biology a ...

'' diagnostic devices. It is located in

Langen, Hesse Langen is a town of roughly 39,000 in the Offenbach district in the '' Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. The town is between Darmstadt and Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Langen is headquar ...

, near

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, and was located in Frankfurt for most of the 20th century. It is named for its founding director, the immunologist and Nobel Prize laureate

Paul Ehrlich Paul Ehrlich (; 14 March 1854 – 20 August 1915) was a Nobel Prize-winning German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure ...

History

The Paul Ehrlich Institute was founded on 1 June 1896 in

Steglitz Steglitz () is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in Southwestern Berlin, the capital of Germany. is a Slavic name for the European goldfinch, similar to the German . Steglitz was also a borough from 1920 to 2000. It contained th ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

as the Institute for Serum Research and Serum Testing (Institut für Serumforschung und Serumprüfung), with immunologist

, one of Germany's most prominent medical researchers at the time, as its first director. The institute was founded specifically to provide a platform for Ehrlich's research. In 1899, it moved to

and was renamed the Royal Institute for Experimental Therapy (''Königliches Institut für experimentelle Therapie''). After Germany had become a republic in 1919, it was renamed the National Institute for Experimental Therapy (Staatliches Institut für Experimentelle Therapie). Ehrlich received numerous honours in Germany and was awarded the 1908

Nobel Prize in medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, according ...

. In 1947, the institute was renamed the Paul Ehrlich Institute in honour of its founding director. In 1987, the institute moved from Paul-Ehrlich-Straße in Frankfurt to

, a suburb south of Frankfurt.

Activities

The regulatory tasks of the Paul Ehrlich Institute include the marketing authorisation of particular groups of

medicinal product A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and rel ...

s and the approval of

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, diet ...

s. The medicinal products in the responsibility of the PEI are: vaccines for humans and animals, medicinal products containing

antibodies An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of ...

allergens An allergen is a type of antigen that produces an abnormally vigorous immune response in which the immune system fights off a perceived threat that would otherwise be harmless to the body. Such reactions are called allergies. In technical ter ...

for therapy and products for diagnostic tests, blood and blood products and tissue and medicinal products for

gene therapy Gene therapy is a Medicine, medical field which focuses on the genetic modification of cells to produce a therapeutic effect or the treatment of disease by repairing or reconstructing defective genetic material. The first attempt at modifying ...

, somatic cell therapy and xenogenic cell therapy.

Directors and Presidents

(1908 Nobel laureate in medicine) 1896–1915 *

Wilhelm Kolle Wilhelm Kolle (born 2 November 1868 in Lerbach near Osterode am Harz, died 10 May 1935) was a German bacteriologist and hygienist. He served as the second director of the Royal Institute for Experimental Therapy, succeeding its founder, the Nobel ...

1917–1935 * Richard Otto 1938–1948 *

Richard Prigge Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'str ...

1949–1962 *Günther Heymann 1962–1966 * Niels Kaj Jerne (1984 Nobel laureate in medicine) 1966–1969 *Günther Heymann 1969–1973 *Hans Dieter Brede 1974–1987 *

Reinhard Kurth Reinhard is a German, Austrian, Danish, and to a lesser extent Norwegian surname (from Germanic ''ragin'', counsel, and ''hart'', strong), and a spelling variant of Reinhardt. Persons with the given name *Reinhard of Blankenburg (after 1107 – 11 ...

1987–1999 *

Johannes Löwer Johannes Löwer (born 20 November 1944 in Vienna) is an Austrian/German biochemist and physician, who served as President of the Paul Ehrlich Institute from 1999 to 2009 and as President of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices fro ...

1999–2009 (acting 1999–2001) * Klaus Cichutek 2009–Klaus Cichutek: Neuer Präsident des Paul-Ehrlich-Instituts
aerzteblatt.de

References

External links

Official Website (English)

PEI Annual Report 2007-2008
{{Authority control German federal agencies World Health Organization collaborating centres Organisations based in Berlin Organisations based in Frankfurt Organizations established in 1896 Virology institutes 1896 in Germany 1896 in science