Partnering to deliver the 100 Days Mission
CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations)
We want to stop future epidemics by developing new vaccines for a safer world.
Partnership is at the heart of what CEPI does. In our short history, we have built an expansive network of collaborators, from the 250 awardees and sub-awardees in more than 50 countries across the fields of vaccine development, manufacturing and enabling sciences to our partnerships with Civil Society, Governments, the public and philanthropic sectors.
Most recently, CEPI has announced the first of a new category of Strategic Partnership with the University of Oxford that will enable us to work with one of the world’s leading vaccine development institutions at greater scale and in a more flexible and agile manner than our previous modes of partnering have allowed.
Up to US$80 million of CEPI funding will support the University of Oxford’s world-leading team of vaccine scientists to develop prototype vaccines against high-risk viral families, which could be swiftly adapted if a new viral threat is identified. This would pave the way for the development of new vaccines, based on Oxford’s ChAdOx technology and other rapid response vaccine platforms, within just 100 days of a virus with pandemic potential emerging.
Clinical trials in remote rainforests: Vital Ebola vaccine research in DRC
In the heart of the equatorial rainforest lies the remote city of Boende, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The city, situated among 178 million hectares of rich biodiversity, isn’t accessible by road. Despite the logistical challenges involved with directing supplies to this area, one team of researchers has paved the way for conducting high-quality clinical trials in this remote region, providing critical data needed to advance Ebola and Covid-19 vaccines.
In 2019, Professor Hypolite Muhindo-Mavoko and his team from the University of Kinshasa initiated a clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine (EBOVAC3) in Boende, DRC. Following the success of EBOVAC3, which was part-funded by CEPI, the facilities are now used for several ongoing projects, including as part of a CEPI-funded consortium of African research institutions evaluating COVID-19 vaccines in people living with HIV.
As the lead researcher, Professor Muhindo-Mavoko recently met with CEPI to tell us more about the challenges he and his team faced when conducting vaccine trials in Boende, how the project and CEPI’s support has helped to strengthen the local capacity and infrastructure needed to conduct high-quality clinical studies, and his hopes for other funders to continue to support researchers in the Global South.
Find out more in CEPI’s latest Impact Story.
100 Words On… Disease X
Disease X represents the knowledge that a viral outbreak could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease. COVID-19 is a recent example of a Disease X, but it won’t be the last. Forces such as globalisation, urbanisation, and climate change continuously heighten the risk of a Disease X emerging. To help the world get ahead, CEPI is helping to advance vaccine platform technologies to enable rapid development of vaccine candidates against novel epidemic or pandemic threats, potentially within 100 days of identification.
Check out the book DISEASE X – The 100 Days Mission to End Pandemics to learn more about how the world can prepare for a future Disease X.
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Other R&D news
Following Valneva’s positive initial Phase 3 safety data in adolescents for its Chikungunya vaccine candidate (VLA1553), which was funded by CEPI, Health Canada has accepted its Chikungunya vaccine license application for review. If approved, VLA1553 could be the first licensed chikungunya vaccine available to address this unmet medical need.
CEPI is providing up to US$3.6 million to advance the development of Genova’s self-amplifying, thermostable mRNA vaccine platform to develop vaccine candidates against Disease X.
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