The role played by the Olivia Hendrickx Fund in delivering immunotherapy is very important. Not only does it pay for laboratory technicians and the production costs of the vaccinations, it has also been used to purchase a great deal of equipment for the laboratory.

1. Laboratory
An investment was made in the purchase of the necessary apparatus, for the operation not only of the research laboratory but also of the laboratory that produces the vaccine.

The equipment includes:

• an incubator
• air flows
• computers
• blood count machine
• centrifuges
• water bath
• refrigerator and freezer
• microscope
• nitrogen tanks
• etc.

Apart from the equipment, it has also been possible to increase the number of laboratory technicians thanks to the Research Fund.

2. Fundamental research
Since 2000, the Research Fund has also been financing the preclinical research by paying the salaries of the researchers as well as the operating costs of the research.

For over four years, for instance, the remuneration and operating costs of doctoral student Wim Maes were completely borne by the Olivia Hendrickx Research Fund. Wim Maes studied how the immune system of mice reacts in relation to a malignant glioma in the brain and how administrating a tumour vaccine can have an impact on it in order to improve the mice's survival. Thanks to this much-needed mouse model, many immunological questions could be answered and further steps in improving its clinical application in patients could be based on it.
In September 2009, Wim Maes successfully presented his doctoral thesis in this field.

The operating costs and remuneration of doctoral students Isabel Spencer, Hilko Ardon, An Coosemans and Tina Verschuere for their work in fundamental research were also borne by the Fund.

3. Production costs for the vaccine
The Research Fund also offers the guarantee that every patient who applies can be treated with the vaccine. The production costs for the vaccines amount to approximately EUR 15,000 per patient.

After all, the vaccination treatment is at present not reimbursed by the mutual health insurance companies. The Research Fund is currently negotiating with RIZIV-INAMI, the Belgian National Institute of Sickness and Invalidity Insurance, in this regard.