Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)
The global community wants to be better prepared for serious infectious disease epidemics than before. For this purpose, the international vaccine initiative “Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations” (CEPI) was founded, in which the DZIF is also involved. Their goal is to stop epidemics before far-reaching health risks and states of emergencies develop. New vaccines are developed that can be used in the event of an epidemic or as preventive measures.
As a first step, CEPI intends to develop vaccines against the viral pathogens that have been listed as particularly dangerous by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The vaccines are to be made available immediately in the event of an emergency. The devastating Ebola epidemic highlighted the imperative need for better agreements between the public sector and companies, so as to master crises and control infectious disease outbreaks.
„We want to contain the risk of emerging infectious diseases spreading across countries, and in the worst case, across continents. This is why, at CEPI, we are developing new vaccines that can be used in the event of an epidemic or as preventive measures.“
CEPI supports the development and manufacture of a vaccine against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a zoonotic disease that is spread to humans by dromedary camels. The promising vaccine candidate was advanced by the German Center of Infection Research (DZIF) up to clinical phase I. Next development activities will now be performed by IDT Biologika and a MERS-CoV Vaccine Consortium of scientific and clinical organizations, including DZIF.