The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome, a global charitable foundation, have pledged $150 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI),
Key Highlights
a five-year-old partnership between the two charitable foundations and the governments of Norway and India, and the World Economic Forum.
The promises come ahead of a worldwide conference to promote CEPI’s five-year strategy to better prepare for, prevent, and respond to future epidemics and pandemics fairly and equitably. On Thursday, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, stated,
“As the world reacts to the challenge of a fast changing virus, the need to give new, lifesaving tools has never been more important.”
“Our work over the last 20 years has shown us that investing in research and development early may save lives and avoid worst-case outcomes.”
Our foundation assisted in creating CEPI five years ago, following the Ebola and Zika outbreaks.
“Today, we’re contributing an extra $150 million to assist CEPI expedite the discovery of safe and efficient vaccinations against new coronavirus variations so that we can prepare for, and maybe even prevent, the next pandemic,” Gates said in a statement.
About CEPI
CEPI produced one of the world’s largest and most diversified portfolios of Covid vaccine candidates when the pandemic began, according to the statement—14 in all,
six of which are still receiving funding and three of which have been awarded emergency-use status by the World Health Organization. CEPI was one of the first investors in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine’s development.
The WHO listed Novavax’s protein-based Covid-19 vaccine, primarily financed by CEPI, as an emergency-use vaccine last month. Covax, a worldwide project aimed at ensuring equal access to coronavirus vaccinations, now has access to more than 1 billion doses of the vaccine.
CEPI is also working on next-generation Covid-19 vaccines, including “variant-proof” vaccinations, which protect against all coronaviruses and eliminate the threat of future coronavirus pandemics.
Supporting CEPI
“Our additional $150 million investment acknowledges CEPI’s immense potential to defend lives against emerging infectious diseases,”
said Wellcome director Dr Jeremy Farrar, who encouraged international leaders to guarantee CEPI meets its financial goal. He added
“It is in the world’s collective interest to avoid making the same mistakes we have made in the past and to assist future generations in preventing epidemics,”
On March 8, CEPI will hold a “replenishment conference” in London. The event will bring together governments, philanthropists, and other funders to support CEPI’s five-year strategy to combat pandemic and epidemic risk, possibly saving millions of lives and billions of dollars in economic harm.
Edited by- Kritika Kashyap
Published by- Satheesh Kumar
