GLOBAL – The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), two co-leads of COVAX, have expanded their partnership to enhance the rapid development, deployment, and access to vaccines against other deadly disease threats with outbreak potential.

The signed Memorandum of Understanding is crucial to facilitating faster global health and vaccine information sharing between the two organizations, enhancing our collective ability to prepare for and respond to future epidemics. 

CEPI and Gavi are committed to using their respective areas of expertise to accelerate equitable access to outbreak vaccines for populations most in need, regardless of their ability to pay, as a testament to our shared commitment to global health equity.

“Despite COVAX’s valiant efforts, COVID-19 exposed the deep tragedy of unequal access to life-saving medicines,” explains Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI.

“Now, as we seek to recover from the pandemic and prepare for new threats, it’s vital that we re-engineer the system to produce better outcomes for everyone in the future: The COVAX motto of ‘no one is safe until everyone is safe’ holds true today.

“Our continuing work with Gavi can deliver a more cohesive strategy that improves the speed, scale, and access to vaccine doses against an emerging viral threat.”

The partnership will focus on alignment and coordination between Gavi and CEPI on developing, manufacturing, and supplying new vaccine candidates against known diseases and a novel or as-yet-unidentified threat with pandemic potential, known as ‘Disease X.’ 

The faster safe and effective new vaccines are developed and equitably deployed based on a country’s need, the faster a new pandemic threat can be contained and controlled, helping to reduce the danger for everyone, everywhere.

Dr. Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, said: “In designing COVAX in early 2020, Gavi and CEPI played a formative role in shaping the global vaccine response to COVID-19.

“We learned a lot along the way about how to build a future response that is faster, more equitable and scalable.

“Today’s signing of this Memorandum of Understanding will ensure both Gavi and CEPI are able to bring their core strengths to a coordinated response against the emerging diseases and pandemic threats we know we will face in the future.”

CEPI and Gavi will also collaborate on policy and advocacy efforts to enhance the global pandemic preparedness architecture.

The new collaboration builds on the strong relationship between the two organizations when co-leading the largest and fastest mass global vaccination campaign in history alongside UNICEF and WHO in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

By the end of 2023, COVAX delivered to 146 countries and economies, helping to avert an estimated 2.7 million deaths across lower-income participating economies that received free vaccine doses through the mechanism.

The partnership is part of a wider set of partnerships launched by both organizations to support an end-to-end approach collectively.

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