CEPI identifies active development of 78 vaccines, seeks funds for equitable access

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 April 2020, 23:12 GMT]
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has identified 115 COVID-19 vaccine efforts at varying stages of development as of 08 April. Out of these, 78 bids were confirmed as active, and five moved into the clinical development phase. “Given the imperative for speed, there is an indication that vaccine could be available under emergency use or similar protocols by early 2021,” the CEPI says. The Oslo-based foundation launched in 2017 as a platform for the governments, charities and the private sector to finance and coordinate vaccines efforts, recently issued an urgent worldwide call for USD 2 billion. The funding was intended to streamline COVID-19 vaccine efforts guided by three imperatives: speed, manufacture and deployment at scale, and global access. The nonprofit move faces challenges from populist “country first” world leaders and major healthcare corporations.

“The global vaccine R&D effort in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of scale and speed,” noted the CEPI study conducted by seven authors. The study was published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, a peer-reviewed journal on Thursday.

The CEPI was basing its study on COVID-19 landscape data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The US President has threatened to freeze the US funding of the WHO accusing the WHO as being “China-centric”.

Financial Times on Thursday reported that the US government, which has not given money directly to CEPI’s COVID-19 vaccine project, has put half a billion dollars in Johnson & Johnson’s search for a vaccine.

The Trump Administration has also made a deal with Moderna “for an undisclosed amount,” the FT report said.

The CEPI is reportedly having a COVID-19 vaccine development project with Moderna.

Meanwhile, there have been reports of corporations exerting pressure to revise the exit clauses in the CEPI agreements on “equitable access policy” to their advantage.

The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF / Doctors without Borders) has been objecting to watering down of the language in the agreements.

The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), established by the WHO and the World Bank, has estimated $8 billion, as funding that should go to organisations coordinating the global Research and Development (R&D) response to this crisis: CEPI, the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, and The Foundation for New Innovative Diagnostics (FIND).



While the CEPI is focused on streamlining the efforts to prevent the epidemics through vaccination, another initiative, “COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator” has been launched in March by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Mastercard, to address the research and development needs for the treatment of the disease.

Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) is a non-profitable organisation, founded in 2003 at the 56th World Health Assembly. It aims to provide all the novel and affordable diagnostic services and products to the healthcare wings in the developing countries.

In the meantime, UK-based Welcome Trust has launched an online campaign, named COVID-Zero, urging the businesses to reach the needed $8bn funding.

The WHO has also created “COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund” through which the public could contribute online.



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External Links:

Wellcome:		COVID 0
Financial Times:		Bill Gates urges rich countries to fund coronavirus vaccine search
The Guardian:		Trump threatens to hold WHO funding, then backtracks, amid search for scapegoat
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:		COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator Awards $20 Million for Trials
European Pharmaceutical Review:		CEPI calls for $2bn of funding for coronavirus vaccine
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery:		The COVID-19 vaccine development landscape
WHO:		COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO
FIND:		Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics
Bloomberg:		The Road to a Coronavirus Vaccine Runs Through Oslo
The Guardian:		When will a coronavirus vaccine be ready?

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