GPPS 2024 reinvigorates efforts to prepare for future pandemics
CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations)
We want to stop future epidemics by developing new vaccines for a safer world.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—Presidency of this year’s G20—CEPI, Brazil’s Ministry of Health and Fiocruz co-hosted the second Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit on 29/30 July. The Summit convened over 350 global health experts to harness scientific progress and political will to reinvigorate momentum around the pandemic preparedness agenda.
The two-day Summit centred around three key themes: enhancing global disease surveillance, delivering the 100 Days Mission, and enabling equitable access to health technologies. Sessions also delved into how ready the world is for a zoonotic influenza pandemic, how climate change is heightening epidemic risk, the latest developments with the Pandemic Agreement and much more.
Global health partners used the unique Summit platform to advance vital pandemic preparedness initiatives, including the WHO’s priority pathogen scientific framework, FIND’s pathogen diagnostics readiness index, and the ‘Rio de Janeiro Declaration’ – a statement signed by leading Global South institutions on the Summit sidelines that underscores the urgent need to address global inequities in access to health tools and services.
A sobering message emerged from the Summit’s discussions: although we have made significant gains in some areas, the world is likely not prepared enough to respond rapidly and equitably to a future pandemic threat.
However, a spirit of optimism and collective challenge ultimately prevailed. We know what needs to be done to realise stronger surveillance capabilities, equitable access to medical countermeasures and the 100 Days Mission for vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics, and, crucially, we know how to get there. With sufficient investment, political will and collaboration across regions, sectors and disciplines we can truly transform the way in which the world responds to emerging viral threats. ?
Outcomes, recommendations and video recordings of all Summit sessions will be published?in the coming weeks with the aim to inform global leaders’ decision-making for international pandemic preparedness efforts – stay tuned!
?? Learn more ?
Brazil’s Minister of Health, Dr Nísia Trindade Lima :?“Global partnerships are key to the 100 Days Mission’s success.?Brazil is undoubtedly capable of adopting this objective…?It's time for science, technology, and innovation to unite for robust public health policies. We must work together in global health so that it becomes a reality.”
Professor Mario Moreira , President of Fiocruz:?“The Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit symbolises the level we are working at to achieve the common goal to build a world ready for pandemic threats… It’s time to think and design a different world with a new mindset to build global health systems and strengthen global pandemic preparedness and response, with coordination between the Global South and North.”
Professor Jane Halton, Chair, CEPI: “We here not just as individual representatives of our nations or organisations, but a global community—a global health defence force—united by a common purpose to ensure that the world is better prepared to face down outbreaks and prevent them from becoming deadly and devastating pandemics.”
Mobilising Brazil’s manufacturing might to support vaccine production in the Global South
Announced at the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2024, Brazil’s Bio-Manguinhos / Fiocruz , one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in Latin America, joined CEPI’s network of vaccine manufacturers in the Global South, working to support faster and more equitable responses to future emerging infectious disease threats.
CEPI will support Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz to significantly boost and expand its vaccine production efforts in the Latin American and Caribbean region to make vaccines faster and more accessible in response to future epidemic and pandemic threats.
The 100 Days Mission – how close are we?
The 100 Days Mission—a goal to develop pandemic-busting vaccines, tests and treatments within a little over three months—was a key focus at the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit. In the run-up to the Summit, Kate Kelland, CEPI’s chief scientific writer, explored how close the world is to realising this ambitious plan.??
Kelland reports that while we are better prepared to respond rapidly to novel viruses from families like Coronavirus or Poxvirus, we are less well prepared to face others, such as a novel Paramyxovirus. So, while there are grounds for cautious optimism, much work remains to fully realise the 100 Days Mission.?GPPS 2024 was an important forum for driving forward conversations on what steps need to be taken now to ensure that when the next pandemic threat strikes, the world can respond with countermeasures within 100 days.??
?? Watch the GPPS 2024 panel session here.
?? GPPS 2024: Reading corner
We can stop the next pandemic, but only if we act now (The Telegraph)
Brazil Pandemic Summit Underscores the Global Gaps in Preparedness? (Health Policy Watch)
Mpox: two years on ?(The BMJ)
New tool indicates woeful diagnostic readiness for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (FIND)?
Rio de Janeiro Declaration ?(Fiocruz)
?? Tune in
Did you know all the sessions from GPPS 2024 were recorded? Recording of sessions from the plenary room are now available; recordings from Breakouts 2 and 3 will come soon. Click here?to see all currently available sessions.
Check out the video summary below to see a snapshot of how GPPS 2024 unfolded.
See also: Broadcast coverage of GPPS 2024 from Brazilian media outlet, O Globo, here. ?
Other CEPI Updates & Insights...
Monoclonal antibodies: expanding defences against Nipah virus
A novel monoclonal antibody against Nipah virus—which could offer people at risk of infection immediate protection against the deadly disease—is planned to undergo human clinical trials in India and Bangladesh.
With $43.5 million in funding from CEPI, the human trials are intended to commence in 2025, pending regulatory review. Led by non-profit biotechnology company ServareGMP and supported by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc , the trials will assess the Nipah mAb, MBP1F5, in healthy adults at multiple clinical trial sites in India and Bangladesh—two countries that suffer Nipah outbreaks almost every year.
In the event of a Nipah outbreak, a monoclonal antibody against the virus could be used as a bridge of protection for people at high risk of exposure, prior to the onset of longer-lasting protection offered by vaccines. Such use of monoclonal antibodies could help to limit the number of people infected and stop a potential Nipah outbreak in its tracks.
This latest Nipah funding announcement is CEPI’s inaugural investment in the development of a monoclonal antibody against one of its priority pathogens. CEPI has also invested in four early-stage vaccine candidates against Nipah and related enabling research, making it one of the world’s largest funders of Nipah virus research. A recent outbreak of Nipah in India this month reinforces the urgent need to advance medical countermeasures against this deadly disease.
Other R&D and manufacturing news
领英推荐
CEPI and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research are providing US $4.9 million to Bavarian Nordic for its ‘SMART’* trial to find out if post-exposure vaccination of their MVA-BN? mpox vaccine could reduce the risk of secondary mpox cases, or, if a person contracts mpox, could reduce their severity of illness.?
CEPI and the EU’s Horizon Europe programme are funding US$41.3 million for new research to expand access to the world’s first Chikungunya vaccine in outbreak-affected countries. The clinical trials will help generate additional data to potentially support licensure of Valneva's Chikungunya vaccine in endemic countries and at-risk populations, such as children and pregnant women.
CEPI is providing US $1.1m to support biotechnology company Apriori Bio’s Octavia?, an artificial intelligence platform aimed at protecting humanity against rapidly evolving viruses by designing variant-resilient vaccines.
CEPI and BiologIC Technologies are collaborating to advance “AI-ready platform” that could help to reduce the time it takes to develop and manufacture mRNA vaccine platforms, making them more easily and swiftly available for use in the event of a novel outbreak or a pandemic threat.
Malaysia has renewed its commitment to CEPI with a USD 3 million pledge, demonstrating its commitment to saving lives through the development of safe and effective vaccines.
The CEPI-supported Regionalized Vaccine Manufacturing Collaboration (RVMC) published its 3-year strategy on the sidelines of GPPS 2024. The strategy focuses on three central themes – consensus, coordination and collaboration that are essential for building sustainable regional vaccine manufacturing.
CEPI welcomes Aurélia Nguyen as its new Deputy CEO?
Global health expert Aurélia Nguyen will be joining CEPI on October 1, 2024, as its new Deputy CEO, bringing both a wealth of experience from her career in the multilateral and private sectors and fresh thinking to what is going to be a critical role at CEPI.
???Open Calls for Proposals
As CEPI progresses its Rift Valley fever (RVF) vaccine candidates, it is vital to understand whether an efficacy study is feasible or whether alternative pathways to licensure will need to be considered. This funding Call seeks to advance our understanding of RVF emergence and transmission, potentially identifying RVF hotspots where it may be possible to evaluate how well a human RVF vaccine works.
?? Deadline to apply: Noon, CET, September 20, 2024.
?? Find out more, including application guidance, here.
Other opportunities
The MusiCC consortium is requesting information from vaccine developers who are currently developing a next-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and are willing to collaborate and provide material for a phase II a/b randomised placebo-controlled vaccine-human challenge trial to evaluate immunogenicity and efficacy.
Find out more and express your interest: https://www.musicc.org/
Reading corner ??
Nipah virus kills one teenager as health experts race to track 350 others (The Telegraph) ??
A promising boost for the Rift Valley fever vaccine pipeline (The Lancet Infectious Diseases)
Towards Continuous Lyophilization with a New Technique: Spin Freeze Drying ?(The Medicine Maker)
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