Project profile — Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations – Institutional Support 2023

This grant represents Canada’s long-term institutional support to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). CEPI uses these funds, along with other donors’ funding, to achieve its mandate. 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. This project supports CEPI’s 2022 to 2026 strategy (CEPI 2.0), which has three strategic objectives: (1) preparing for known epidemic and pandemic threats; (2) transforming future responses to novel infectious disease threats; and (3) creating, building and enhancing new and existing connections to enhance global collaboration on infectious disease threats. Project activities include: (1) investing in research and development for promising vaccine candidates and platforms that target emerging infectious diseases of concern, along with enabling science activities that would help produce these vaccines; (2) advocating globally for research and development investments into vaccines and other biologic countermeasures for emerging infectious disease threats and equitable access; and (3) developing strategies Canada’s funding of CEPI contributes to improving preparedness and response to emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats, particularly for those living in low- and middle-income countries.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic is ended; (2) accelerated development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against known high-risk pathogens; (3) reduced risk of further coronavirus pandemics; (4) increased use of vaccine prototypes and platform innovations in preparation for novel threats; (5) scaled enabling sciences to accelerate vaccine development; (6) transformed vaccine manufacturing to be faster, cheaper, and closer to an outbreak; (7) secured financing for epidemic preparedness and response; (8) increased coordination among key stakeholders to enable system readiness; and (9) strengthened equitable access principles in effective responses.

Results achieved as of December 2023 include: (1) 12 candidate vaccines against known high-risk pathogens received support, including one achieved licensure; (2) the project supported 8 innovative vaccine technology platforms; (3) expanded its manufacturing network to 3 partners across 3 regions; and (4) maintained advocacy activities for equitable access to vaccines, including by designing and securing support to launch the second phase of the Regionalised Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative.