Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations Anniversary

January 18, 2022 marks five years to the day since the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched. Today, on the 5-year anniversary of CEPI, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome announced that they will each pledge $150 million (for a total of $300M) to CEPI, calling on global leaders to help CEPI reach its funding target of 3.5 billion. These investments from the Gates Foundation and Wellcome represent a 50% increase from the commitments they made to CEPI in 2017.

There are still COVID-19 R&D gaps to be filled, so it’s important that CEPI continues its work on next-generation vaccines, vaccines against variants of concern, and vaccines that could broadly protect against all coronaviruses. Emerging from the COVID crisis doesn’t mean we’ll be safe from pandemics. In addition to COVID-19, CEPI is working to accelerate vaccine development for six other diseases of epidemic potential, plus underlying vaccine science and new vaccine platforms to prepare for a future “Disease X” pandemic. These advancements also benefit the development of vaccines against other priority diseases like HIV and TB.

CEPI’s work fills critical global health R&D gaps. It is both key to ending the COVID crisis through the development of “variant proof” vaccines and tools for low-resource settings, but it is also essential to supporting the global health system to respond more effectively when the next “Disease X” hits. Read the full press release here and coverage in Reuters here.