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A world in which epidemics and pandemics are no longer a threat to humanity

CEPI is an innovative global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations launched in Davos in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics.

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.

New vaccines for a safer world

As the COVID-19 pandemic shows, in a world characterised by increasing population density, human mobility, and ecological change, emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) pose a real and growing threat to global health security.

Epidemic diseases affect us all. They do not respect borders.

The costs of EIDs are vast, in both human and economic terms. As well as the devastating death toll and disruption to societies, COVID-19 could cost the global economy $4.1 trillion, or almost 5% of global gross domestic product. Even small epidemics can cause tremendous economic disruption.

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 Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations’ (CEPI’s) 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.

Scientist harvesting flu virus

Scientist harvesting flu virus

The challenge

Historically, vaccine development has been 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.

We need a better system to speed the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases.

Events like the devastating 2014/15 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa—which killed more than 11,000 people and had an economic and social burden of over $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 be 100% effective, suggesting that much of the epidemic could have been prevented.

The creation of CEPI

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched at Davos 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.

We are an innovative global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations working to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and enable equitable access to these vaccines for affected populations during outbreaks.

Close collaboration with global partners are crucial to ensure the success of our work. Therefore, we will support coordinating activities to improve our collective response to epidemics, strengthening capacity in countries at risk, and advancing the regulatory science that governs product development.

Launch of CEPI at Davos, 2017

Strengthening global health security

Many organisations operate within the end-to-end space of vaccine funding and R&D implementation. However, a number of critical gaps have been identified, which CEPI was designed to fill.

First, CEPI will advance vaccines against known threats through proof-of-concept and safety testing in humans and will establish investigational vaccine stockpiles before epidemics begin—”just in case”.

Second, we will fund new and innovative platform technologies with the potential to accelerate the development and manufacture of vaccines against previously unknown pathogens (eg: within 16 weeks from identification of antigen to product release for clinical trials)—”just in time”.

Third, CEPI will support and coordinate activities to improve our collective response to epidemics, strengthen capacity in countries at risk, and advance the regulatory science that governs product development.

More about our approach:
PreparednessResponseSustainability
Preparedness
Response
Sustainability

Advance access to safe and effective vaccines against emerging infectious diseases

Accelerate the research, development, and use of vaccines during outbreaks

Create durable and equitable solutions for outbreak response capacity

A global coalition

CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations launched to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics.

Our headquarters are in Oslo, Norway, and we have offices in London, UK, and Washington DC, USA. We also work closely with public-sector, private-sector, and civil-society partners around the world.

A sustainable partnership

Our global coalition is ambitious both in its scope and in the breadth of organisations involved.

CEPI takes an end-to-end approach, operating as both a funder and a facilitator. We focus on vaccine development, licensure, and manufacturing while supporting the efforts of our partners in vaccine discovery and delivery.

A coordinated, international, and intergovernmental response is needed to respond to the global threat posed by emerging infectious disease. Therefore, close collaboration with our global partners will be crucial to the success of our work to develop vaccines against these diseases. 

CEPI role as a facilitator

CEPI role as a funder

1

discovery

2

Development / Licensure

3

Manufacture

4

Delivery / Stockpiling

5

Last mile

Academia
Governments
Wellcome Trust
NIH
IMI
GLOPID-R
Industry
Regulators
Biotech

Industry Governments Regulators
Wellcome Trust
NIH
EC
IMI
BMGF
BARDA/DTRA etc.
WHO
Biotech
PDPs

Industry
BARDA
CMOs
Regulators
Governments
WHO
GHIF

Countries
WHO
UNICEF
Responding Organisations (eg, MSF)

BARDA:
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority
CMOs:
Contract Manufacturing Organisations
DTRA:
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
EC:
European Commission
GAVI:
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation
GHIF:
Global Health Investment Fund
GLOPID-R:
Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness
IMI:
Innovative Medicines Initiative
MSF:
Médecins Sans Frontières
NIH:
National Institutes of Health
PAHO:
Pan American Health Organization
PDPs:
Product Development Partnerships
UNICEF:
United Nations Children's Fund
WHO:
World Health Organisation
Get involved

Key milestones

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