Why we exist
Our mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats so they can be accessible to all people in need.
Epidemic diseases affect us all. They do not respect borders
As the COVID-19 pandemic showed, in a world characterised by increasing population density, human mobility and ecological change, emerging infectious diseases pose a real and growing threat to global health security.
The costs of emerging infectious diseases are vast, in both human and economic terms. Even small epidemics can cause tremendous economic disruption, while pandemics like COVID-19 can lead to devastating loss of life, overwhelming disruption to societies and economic losses of trillions of dollars.
Vaccines are one of our most powerful tools in the fight to outsmart epidemics. The development of vaccines can help save lives, protect societies and restabilise economies.
The creation of CEPI
Historically, vaccine development has been a long, risky and costly endeavour. Planning for emerging infectious diseases is especially challenging: the market potential for vaccines against these diseases is limited and testing such vaccines is difficult.
Events like the devastating 2014-16 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa—which killed more than 11,000 people and had an economic and social burden of over US $53 billion—showed us that very few vaccines are ready to be used against these threats.
The world’s response to this crisis fell tragically short. A vaccine that had been under development for more than a decade was not deployed until over a year into the epidemic. That vaccine was shown to have 100% efficacy, suggesting that much of the epidemic could have been prevented.
CEPI was launched at Davos in 2017 as the result of a consensus that a coordinated, international, and intergovernmental plan was needed to develop and deploy new vaccines to prevent future epidemics.
Latest News
Latest News
University of Oxford launches world’s first Phase II Nipah virus vaccine trial
Scientists in Korea to create mRNA vaccine against emerging Asian tick-borne virus
Closing in on protection against deadly Nipah virus
Disease outbreak survivors are key to future preparedness
First volunteer receives Lassa fever vaccine in cutting-edge Oxford trial
Korea steps up pandemic response with $18.9m investment in CEPI
A blueprint for access at the heart of outbreak R&D
IAVI’s Lassa fever vaccine shows promise in early clinical trials
Progress towards regionalised vaccine manufacturing remains uneven
The ‘Big One’ is coming: How can we prepare for a future coronavirus pandemic?
Global vaccine safety network to launch in six countries across three continents
