CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations)

Are we prepared for the next pandemic? 🦠 🌍 “We have the opportunity to make the next time better” says Professor Kevin Fong as part of a new episode for Professor Brian Cox’s ‘A Question of Science' series exploring the most pressing questions in society today. "It's not too late. We learned a lot of lessons [during COVID-19]. Those lessons were some of the hardest lessons that we've ever had in any branch of science or any branch of medicine. And you know, we owe it to the people who are part of that, which is everybody, to preserve that." The expert line-up who recorded the BBC Studios episode live at The Francis Crick Institute includes CEPI-supported Professor Teresa Lambe from University of Oxford and Professor Wendy Barclay, a member of the MUSICC consortium. Together the panel discusses what the world needs to consider to ready itself for the next big outbreak. 📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube. Link in the comments.

Last week, in conjunction with Malaysia's ASEAN Chairmanship for 2025, CEPI’s CEO, Dr Richard Hatchett, and the Permanent Mission of Malaysia in Geneva convened an ASEAN Health Ambassadors Roundtable to inform and deepen strategic alignment on epidemic and pandemic preparedness across the ASEAN region. The event spotlighted CEPI’s 100 Days Mission and its complementarity with ASEAN’s health security strategies, including the ASEAN Vaccine Security and Self-Reliance initiative, and the UN Pandemic Agreement. Dr Hatchett shared updates on CEPI’s vaccine R&D portfolio, including development of vaccine candidates against Nipah virus—which is endemic in parts of South and Southeast Asia. ASEAN Ambassadors emphasised the importance of equitable access, regional manufacturing, and regulatory harmonisation. CEPI reaffirmed its commitment to supporting ASEAN countries through technical capacity building, policy dialogue, and collaborative platforms. The roundtable also served as a springboard for CEPI’s upcoming Regional Consultative Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 27 October, which will be co-hosted with the Indonesian Ministry of Health. Together, CEPI and ASEAN are working to transform epidemic and pandemic preparedness from aspiration to action—ensuring no country is left behind.

📢 New CEPI-funded project will harness innovative microbial testing methods to accelerate vaccine sterility testing. CEPI funding of up to US$197,280 will support Swedish-based Symcel to develop a rapid sterility testing method for vaccines using its calScreener+ platform. Sterility testing—confirming that a vaccine batch is free from microbial contamination—can be one of the most time-consuming stages in vaccine release, often taking up to a month. Symcel’s approach uses microcalorimetry, a technique that measures tiny amounts of heat generated by microorganisms as they grow, to detect contamination in as little as three days 🦠 This innovation has the potential to cut vaccine release timelines, reduce manufacturing costs, and, therefore, make high-quality vaccine testing more accessible globally. Vaccine analytics, such as sterility testing, are the backbone of a fast, scalable, and safe vaccine manufacturing process, ensuring that vaccines are not only produced quickly but also reliably and safely. But current testing methods can be slow, resource-intensive, and susceptible to human error, potentially delaying vaccine release in an outbreak scenario, when speed is critical. By supporting technologies that reduce testing time from weeks to days, while also making processes simpler, and potentially more cost-effective, CEPI is strengthening global capacity to produce safe vaccines at speed. This is the second project to be awarded under CEPI’s Call for Proposals seeking to advance technologies that monitor vaccine manufacturing processes, ensuring quality, safety, global scalability and accessibility, all while accelerating product release, in support of CEPI’s 100 Days Mission.

With outbreaks becoming more frequent, the world needs to be able to design, test and deliver countermeasures faster, and do so equitably. Last month, Health Emergency Readiness Canada (HERC) and CEPI co-chaired a roundtable in Ottawa with organisations funding and delivering R&D for diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics for epidemic and pandemic threats. Collaboration and readiness are essential to developing these countermeasures quickly, safely, and accessibly to avert epidemics and pandemics. The roundtable focused on: 🔵 Using AI responsibly to accelerate discovery and development. 🔵 Standing up clinical trials at speed through aligned processes and pre-agreed approaches 🔵 Practical examples of how to support access to these countermeasures 🔵 Safeguarding supply chains for production and distribution during crises 🔵 How the health security and defence agenda intersect The meeting confirmed shared goals, common challenges and new opportunities for joint action to enable faster and more equitable responses to future threats. Following the roundtable, HERC (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada) also supported a visit to key Canadian biomanufacturing capabilities in Montreal, including the Le Pôle de Préparation aux Pandémies de l’Est du Canada/ Eastern Canada Pandemic Preparedness Hub, the Centre de production de produits biologiques (CPPB) inc. / Biologics Manufacturing Centre (BMC) Inc. and facilities of the National Research Council Canada / Conseil national de recherches Canada.

The Democratic Republic of Congo announced its 16th Ebola virus disease outbreak on 4 September 2025, in remote Kasaï Province.    Following the framework agreement with Fondation Mérieux, CEPI is also partnering with the UK Health Security Agency to support biosecurity capacity strengthening with national public health institutions and universities involved in epidemic preparedness and infectious disease research across DRC.    These efforts are vital to ensuring that biosecurity and biosafety systems are in place to support emergency responses when the need arises, leveraging CEPI’s existing networks of R&D and manufacturing partnerships to build resilience.  📸 CEPI Director of Biosecurity Dr Andrew Hebbeler, Ph.D. signing the new agreement with the UKHSA’s Head of International Training Christopher Logue and Deputy Director Yper Hall.

📢 New CEPI-funded project seeks to speed up key vaccine manufacture analytics that ensure every vaccine batch is safe, consistent, cost-effective and high quality in an epidemic or pandemic response. Analytics function as the backbone of a fast, scalable, and safe vaccine manufacturing process. Yet current testing methods can be slow, resource-intensive, and prone to human error, risking delays in vaccine release when speed matters most. That’s why, with up to US$197,602 in CEPI funding, we’re partnering with Austria’s GENSPEED Biotech GmbH. The project aims to repurpose its GENSPEED R2 point-of-care diagnostic device to create a fast, fully automated quality control test for detecting residual HEK293 host cell proteins — a critical step in ensuring vaccine safety and consistency. The technology could deliver results in just 20 minutes, compared to the four hours typically required by current methods. By automating complex laboratory processes and reducing dependence on specialised staff, this innovation could cut development timelines, lower costs, and make high-quality vaccine testing more accessible worldwide. Through projects like this, CEPI is strengthening global capacity to produce safe vaccines at speed in support of CEPI’s 100 Days Mission.

💉 Manufacturing vaccines in Africa, for Africa, can support the growth of jobs, ensure self-sufficiency on the continent and help us respond faster to future infectious disease outbreaks🌍 The new European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Commission €95 million funding to BioNTech SE’s Rwanda mRNA vaccine facility adds to CEPI’s earlier investment to the site announced last year. Our funding of up to €130 million is helping to establish the facility which is based on mini manufacturing factories made from shipping containers, known as BioNTainers. Our support for the project ensures that vaccines produced at the site in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, will be accessible and affordable for those who need them most. Dr Amadou Sall, Executive Director of Manufacturing and Supply Chain at CEPI, said: “Establishing the pioneering Rwanda facility will make an important contribution to Africa CDC’s goal for 60% of the vaccines needed by the continent to be produced on the continent by 2040, strengthening regional health security and global pandemic preparedness.” 

A packed room and lively discussion marked CEPI’s World Health Summit session, “Preparing for Future Pandemics – From Fragmentation to Cohesion.” The panel was chaired by CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett and opened by German State Secretary Rolf-Dieter Jungk, who announced Germany’s new EUR 100 million pledge to CEPI and called for others to continue their support for CEPI at this critical time. Over the session, panellists explored how to build a more cohesive, equitable, and rapid global response to future health threats. Key themes included the importance of partnerships and multilateralism, the complementarity of global health processes, the potential for the 100 Days Mission to help counter deliberate biosecurity threats and the growing role of philanthropy in pandemic preparedness. On the sidelines of the Summit, CEPI also took the opportunity to meet with global partners to advance key conversations on preparedness. This included an important event with West African leaders and European and global health experts, expanding on the historic achievements from last month’s Lassa International Conference to build momentum and advance the steps needed to get a lifesaving Lassa vaccine through to licensure. Discussions recognised the pioneering regional partnership as a model for epidemic preparedness and building health security locally. In addition, CEPI and the Pandemic Action Network co-hosted a biosecurity and equity roundtable. Talks focused on how to break down siloes and build scientific partnerships that are both responsible and equitable. In the coming weeks, CEPI and PAN will publish a policy paper outlining the actions needed to unlock global innovation safely and securely in support of the 100 Days Mission. If you missed the main WHS panel discussion, you can watch it in full here: https://lnkd.in/eaKHbHi2

CEPI and Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SII)—the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer—are collaborating to boost pandemic response preparedness using a baculovirus vaccine platform to target H5N1 bird flu as a prototype for a potential Disease X. Supported by CEPI funding of up to US$16.4 million, SII will use its validated baculovirus-based platform to produce and compare two H5 antigens for a recombinant protein vaccine: a wild-type and an AI-optimised, broad-spectrum H5 antigen designed by scientists at Houston Methodist Research Institute. The collaboration will ultimately pressure-test the baculovirus platform's ability to quickly produce new antigens against H5 viruses, simulating a fast response to a future pandemic threat. This aligns with CEPI’s 100 Days Mission—a goal to accelerate vaccine development to within 100 days of identifying a pandemic threat. The work will also serve as proof of concept for using AI to design vaccine antigens capable of inducing broadly protective immunity. 🔗 Learn more in the press release, available in the comments.

An effective and equitable outbreak response is underpinned by strong legal preparedness. Understanding what this looks like and how to improve it was at the heart of CEPI’s first-ever Legal Summit ⬇️ Taking place in London last week, the Legal Summit brought together experts from across the global health ecosystem to explore how legal frameworks can drive equitable access, support innovation, and enable faster, fairer responses to future public health emergencies. Under the theme “Navigating Legal Challenges and Solutions for Pandemic Preparedness and Response,” participants from organisations including WHO, Africa CDC, UNICEF, Unitaid, MMV, CEPI, the Medicines Patent Pool and others shared their insights and best practices. Across two days of a keynote address, presentations and a panel discussion, four salient messages were: 🔵 Legal preparedness is public health preparedness 🔵 Legal clarity accelerates trust 🔵 Predictability enables cooperation. 🔵 Equity, embedded in contracts from the start, transforms science into shared security. The Summit concluded with a stimulating scenario-based exercise that mapped the legal enablers and bottlenecks that could affect the achievement of CEPI’s 100 Days Mission. From the outcomes of the Legal Summit, CEPI will put together a Legal Preparedness Playbook. It was also agreed that a liability risk management working group will be formed to look into ways the ecosystem can be ready to address liability and indemnities in the next pandemic. A big thanks to everyone who attended and shared their expertise, insights, and experiences.