Oslo/Geneva — The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), two co-leads of COVAX, the multilateral mechanism that accelerated equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines globally, have expanded their partnership to enhance the rapid development, deployment and access to vaccines against other deadly disease threats with outbreak potential.
The signed Memorandum of Understanding will facilitate faster sharing of global health and vaccine information between the two organisations to better prepare for and respond to future epidemics. The goal is to use CEPI and Gavi's respective areas of expertise to accelerate equitable access to outbreak vaccines for populations most in need, regardless of their ability to pay.
"Despite COVAX's valiant efforts, COVID-19 exposed the deep tragedy of unequal access to life-saving medicines," explains Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI. "Now, as we seek to recover from the pandemic and prepare for new threats, it's vital that we re-engineer the system to produce better outcomes for everyone in the future: The COVAX motto of 'no one is safe until everyone is safe' holds true today. Our continuing work with Gavi can deliver a more cohesive strategy that improves the speed, scale and access to vaccine doses against an emerging viral threat."
Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, said: "In designing COVAX in early 2020, Gavi and CEPI played a formative role in shaping the global vaccine response to COVID-19. We learned a lot along the way about how to build a future response that is faster, more equitable and scalable. Today's signing of this Memorandum of Understanding will ensure both Gavi and CEPI are able to bring their core strengths to a coordinated response against the emerging diseases and pandemic threats we know we will face in the future."
Current and future areas for collaboration include alignment and coordination between Gavi and CEPI on the development, manufacturing and supply of new vaccine candidates against known diseases, as well as a novel or as-yet unidentified threat with pandemic potential, known as 'Disease X'. The faster that safe and effective new vaccines are developed and equitably deployed based on a country's need, the faster a new pandemic threat can be contained and controlled, helping to reduce the threat for everyone, everywhere.
CEPI and Gavi will also collaborate on policy and advocacy efforts to enhance the global pandemic preparedness architecture.
The new collaboration, signed on the sidelines of the 77th World Health Assembly, builds on the strong relationship developed between the two organisations when co-leading the largest and fastest mass global vaccination campaign in history alongside UNICEF and WHO in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of 2023, COVAX delivered to 146 countries and economies. The scheme is estimated to have helped avert an estimated 2.7 million deaths across lower-income participating economies that received free vaccine doses through the mechanism.
Alongside its successes, key learnings from COVAX underscore the clear global need to create an end-to-end solution - from funding and research & development to policy, allocation and country readiness - to better prepare the next time a viral threat with pandemic potential emerges.
Exact activities that will be undertaken as part of the two-year Memorandum of Understanding are subject to follow-up discussions between the two organisations in the coming months.
The Gavi-CEPI collaboration is part of a wider set of partnerships launched by both organisations to collectively support an end-to-end approach.
Notes to editors
About CEPI
CEPI was launched in 2017 as an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil organisations. Its 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. CEPI has supported the development of more than 50 vaccine candidates or platform technologies against multiple known high-risk pathogens or a future Disease X. Central to CEPI's pandemic-beating five-year plan for 2022-2026 is the '100 Days Mission' to compress the time taken to develop safe, effective, globally accessible vaccines against new threats to just 100 days.
About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate more than half the world's children against some of the world's deadliest diseases. The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organisations that fund Gavi's work here.
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Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation - over 1 billion children - and prevented more than 17.3 million future deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 78 lower-income countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningococcal and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation, above all the zero-dose children who have not received even a single vaccine shot. The Vaccine Alliance employs innovative finance and the latest technology - from drones to biometrics - to save lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and X (Twitter).
