The Cepi vaccine initiative, which is behind some successful corona vaccines, is receiving fresh money. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Britain’s Wellcome Trust have jointly committed $300 million to further Covid-19 vaccine research and improve preparedness for future pandemics, they reported on Wednesday.
One of the goals is a new generation of corona vaccines that are effective regardless of new variants. Cepi also invests in research into vaccines against other diseases, such as those caused by Nipah or Lassa viruses. Both are on a World Health Organization (WHO) list of the eight most potentially dangerous pathogens that “pose the greatest risk to public health because of their epidemic potential.”
Cepi has more than 20 vaccine candidates that are not yet fully developed but are promising. One of Cepi’s priorities is making the vaccines accessible to poorer countries.
The founder of the Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, warned of the risk that the world could experience an even more dangerous pandemic than the corona pandemic. The Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus is very easily transmittable, but the death rate is lower than with measles or smallpox. It is good insurance for governments to invest in vaccine research. Cepi needs 3.5 billion dollars (a good 3 billion euros) in the next five years. A funding conference is scheduled to take place in the UK in March.
The initiative was founded in 2017 in response to the deadly Ebola epidemic in West Africa. In addition to governments, members include foundations, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Among other things, Cepi has promoted the corona vaccines AstraZeneca and Novavax, both of which have been classified as effective and safe by the WHO.