The European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), as coordinator of the TRANSVAC2 vaccine research infrastructure, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), laying the foundation to establish a vaccinology training collaboration with the TRANSVAC2 project.
TRANSVAC2 is dedicated to accelerating and improving vaccine development, by strengthening and disseminating European vaccine expertise. As one of the support activities offered to the scientific community, TRANSVAC2 provides training courses surrounding fundamental and advanced knowledge on a wide-range of vaccine development-related topics. With this MoU, we will boost access of advanced vaccine research and development training to CEPI’s team members, thereby directly supporting CEPI´s important mission to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases.
EVI welcomes this new partnership agreement with CEPI that attests to the high quality and demand of trainings and courses organised by TRANSVAC2 partners, including University of Oxford, Vaccine Formulation Institute, Wageningen University, Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC), The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Fraunhofer (IMI-Fraunhofer), University of Siena (UNISI) and EATRIS.
We will boost access of advanced vaccine research and development training to CEPI’s team members.
About EVI:
European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) is a not-for-profit Product
Development Partnership (PDP) that supports the development of safe, effective and affordable vaccines for global health through collaboration and coordination. Since its inception in 1998, EVI has worked closely with partners and donors worldwide to move over 40 vaccine formulations into clinical testing. EVI operates as an independent, science-driven organisation, leading innovative solutions while also supports cross-cutting vaccine R&D activities, capacity strengthening and advocacy.
About TRANSVAC:
TRANSVAC is a collaborative infrastructure project funded by the European Commission (EC), initially under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) and currently under Horizon 2020. The project is a joint effort of leading European groups working in the field of vaccine development and is coordinated by the EVI. TRANSVAC is designed to accelerate vaccine development by enhancing European vaccine research and training. Ultimately the goal is to increase sustainability of EC vaccine projects by implementing a permanent research infrastructure for early vaccine development. TRANSVAC2 has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement N° 730964.
About CEPI:
CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines against future epidemics. Prior to COVID-19 CEPI’s work focused on developing vaccines against Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever virus and Chikungunya virus – it has over 20 vaccine candidates against these pathogens in development. CEPI has also invested in new platform technologies for rapid vaccine development against unknown pathogens (Disease X).
During the current pandemic, CEPI initiated multiple programmes to develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants with a focus on speed, scale and access. These programmes leverage the rapid response platforms developed by CEPI’s partners prior to the emergence of COVID-19 as well as new collaborations. The aim is to advance clinical development of a diverse portfolio of safe and effective COVID-19 candidates and to enable fair allocation to these vaccines worldwide through COVAX.
CEPI’s 5-year plan lays out a $3.5 billion roadmap to compress vaccine development timelines to 100 days, develop a universal vaccine against COVID-19 and other Betacoronaviruses, and create a “library” of vaccine candidates for use against known and unknown pathogens. The plan is available at http://www.endpandemics.cepi.net.