Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations - CEPI

30/09/2026

CEPI's September newsletter is now available! 🗞️

This month spotlights continued momentum for CEPI 3.0, with $240 million in new funding pledged by partners at UNGA 81. It also features our latest R&D partnerships, new funding opportunities and lots more.

Recent outbreaks, like the deadly Bundibugyo ebolavirus, are a reminder of how quickly dangerous pathogens can emerge and spread, but they also hint at what is possible when the right capabilities, partnerships and expertise are brought together quickly and coherently. That was the underlying theme

30/09/2026

As global health leaders ready themselves for this year’s World Health Summit in Berlin, CEPI invites you to join its official panel discussion, From Crisis Response to Resilience: Innovating for Health Security Beyond Borders.

Echoing the World Health Summit 2026 theme, “From Crisis to Resilience: Innovating for Health”, this session will position CEPI 3.0 as a practical framework connecting technological innovation, cross-sector and cross-border partnership, and population-level resilience – and explore how investment in CEPI 3.0 helps countries mitigate the health, socio-economic and security impact of outbreaks.

Confirmed speakers so far include:

🔵 Dr. Delese Mimi Darko, Director General of African Medicines Agency
🔵 Dr. Githinji Gitahi, CEO of Amref Health Africa
🔵 Hon Prof Jane Halton AO PSM FAICD, Chair of CEPI
🔵 Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI
🔵 Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi
🔵 Prof Dr Clara Schoeder, Institute for Drug Discovery, University of Leipzig

Date: Monday, 12th October; Time: 16:00-17:30 CEST
Attend in person or watch the livestream. Register now: https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/sessions/0342ecff-3855-4859-a064-a411322ef8f9

29/09/2026

New funding announcement: The BioPREVAIL x CEPI Biosecurity Innovation Challenge is seeking practical biosafety and biosecurity innovations to strengthen vaccine research, development and manufacturing during epidemic and pandemic responses, supporting CEPI’s 100 Days Mission.

“Achieving the 100 Days Mission means moving at unprecedented speed without compromising safety or security”, said Andrew Hebbeler, Ph.D. Hebbeler, Director of Biosecurity at CEPI. “The BioPREVAIL x CEPI Biosecurity Innovation Challenge will help turn promising ideas into practical safeguards that can be tested and deployed in real-world settings, including where resources and infrastructure are constrained. We are proud to work with BioPREVAIL to advance innovative solutions from around the world that strengthen biosecurity and support the 100 Days Mission.”

Three teams will receive a six-month accelerator, including up to US$50,000 in funding each, technical mentorship and access to global health experts, culminating in a showcase in Geneva in May 2027.

Startups, companies, academic and research groups, laboratories, non-profits and consortia from any country can apply.

Deadline: 31 October 2026, 11:59 p.m. CET
More info and how to apply: https://bioprevail.org/challenge/bioprevail-x-cepi-biosecurity-innovation-challenge/

21/09/2026

🔉 Major new funding for CEPI announced today at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.

Ethiopia, Norway and the UK have pledged a combined US$240 million to support CEPI’s five-year plan to transform the world’s ability to prevent and respond to future epidemic and pandemic threats.

Ethiopia has committed to continue the country’s long-standing financial support for CEPI, Norway has committed US$106 million (NOK 1 billion), and the UK has committed up to US$134 million (£100 million). Together, these commitments will support CEPI 3.0, the Coalition's 2027–2031 strategy to systematically reduce the likelihood, impact and cost of epidemics and pandemics.

CEPI 3.0 is built around three interconnected priorities that, together, will drive the 100 Days Mission towards an operational reality:

🔵 Developing vaccines against the most dangerous pathogens and viral families

🔵 Advancing rapid-response vaccine platforms that can be adapted to new viruses

🔵 Strengthening global research, manufacturing and regulatory networks that can be rapidly activated when outbreaks strike

As CEPI CEO Dr Richard Hatchett said: “By backing CEPI 3.0, Ethiopia, Norway and the UK are showing the kind of foresight and leadership that global health security depends on. Their investments will strengthen the world's disease defences, helping us respond rapidly and equitably to emerging viral threats.”

With the UN High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response taking place later this week, these commitments are an important demonstration of the continued investment needed to against the threat of epidemics and pandemics.

Thank you to Ethiopia, Norway and the UK for backing CEPI 3.0.

Read the full announcement: https://cepi.net/ethiopia-norway-and-uk-commit-us240-million-cepis-global-plan-tackle-epidemic-and-pandemic-threats

18/09/2026

The 100 Days Mission has a clear goal: develop and deploy diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines within 100 days of a new pandemic threat being identified. Reaching that target depends on the right capabilities, partnerships, and financing being in place before the next crisis begins.

At Devex Impact House @ UNGA, together with the 100 Days Mission partners — IPPS, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations - CEPI, FIND, diagnosis for all, Unitaid, and MPP — the conversation will move from political commitment to practical readiness.

Through complementary discussions on global preparedness and implementation in practice, the session will bring together multisectoral leaders to explore the capabilities, partnerships, financing, and priority actions needed to strengthen preparedness and accelerate progress towards the 100 Days Mission.

Join speakers including Dr. Victor Dzau, co-chair of the IPPS Science and Technology Expert Group; Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI; Rachel Cohen, senior advisor, global policy advocacy at Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi); Sheila Mburu, deputy head of IPPS, Dr. Priscila Ferraz Soares, vice president for health production and innovation of the FIOCRUZ Fundação Oswaldo Cruz; and Carol Nawina, executive director of Citam+.

Additional speakers to be announced!

📅 Sept. 21 | New York + On-demand
👉 Register now: https://dvx.cm/bgxtab

17/09/2026

Good decisions in an outbreak depend on good evidence.

That’s why CEPI is investing US$3.9 million in three research projects to strengthen understanding of the Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), helping guide the response and support clinical trials of BDBV vaccine candidates.

With more than 7,200 confirmed cases and over 3,500 deaths reported as of 13 September, and no licensed vaccine available for Bundibugyo virus, real-time evidence is urgently needed to understand how the outbreak is evolving and where interventions are most needed.

The projects will bring together disease surveillance, laboratory, genomic and population-movement data to generate timely modelling and analysis.

The three projects are: B-REACT, led by Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in the DRC; BRIDGE, led by Imperial College London's MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and Jameel Institute; and ring vaccination and vaccine-design modelling, led by Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) in Uganda

As Dr Arminder Deol, Head of Data Science and Advanced Analysis at CEPI, says: “By backing modelling and analytics teams based in the affected countries, we are helping to answer urgent questions, like where the virus is spreading, how fast, and how best to evaluate and deploy vaccines and other tools, while building analytical expertise that will remain in the region long after this outbreak ends."

Read more about the projects:

CEPI is investing US$3.9 million in three research projects that will turn real-time outbreak data into actionable insights to guide the Bundibugyo ebolavirus response in the DRC and support vaccine trials.

09/09/2026

Conventional mRNA vaccines must be stored and transported at ultra-low temperatures to remain stable and effective. During an outbreak, this can impact access to doses in low-resource or remote settings that lack the equipment needed to prevent vaccines from spoiling, hindering efforts to save lives and contain the spread of a disease.

Today we announced new funding of up to US$8.9 million in Immunoscript Life Science to advance clinical testing of its thermostable next-generation self-amplifying RNA vaccine technology.

The CLNE vaccine platform, developed and authorised in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, uses a ‘nanoemulsion’ design that can help overcome such temperature challenges to deliver freezer-free RNA vaccines.

The move marks an important boost to India’s growing RNA medicine sector while potentially expanding the reach of RNA vaccines to communities where cold-chain infrastructure is limited. As our CEO Richard Hatchett highlights, this could better prepare "both India and the world against deadly emerging threats.”

https://cepi.net/india-ramps-disease-x-preparedness-89-million-funding-boost-its-freezer-free-rna-vaccine

04/09/2026

“If we know that a threat can kill millions or even billions of our brothers and sisters, then we must be prepared for it. We must do the same—or better—to prepare for the next war against disease by investing seriously in saving lives,” said Budi Sadikin, Indonesia’s Minister of Health, at a pandemic simulation exercise hosted by CEPI and Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia this week in Jakarta.

The event brought together over 120 experts working across the vaccine and epidemic preparedness research ecosystem in the region to discuss how they can collaborate and leverage the full breadth of Indonesia’s pandemic preparedness capability and infrastructure to develop a vaccine against a fictional 'Nipah-X' in as little as 100 days.

https://cepi.net/indonesia-steps-southeast-asias-outbreak-preparedness-pandemic-simulation-exercise

03/09/2026

Join CEPI at UNGA 2026 ⬇️

As global leaders gather for the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, CEPI invites you to join its flagship side event: Building Crisis-Ready Coalitions: From Fragmentation to Readiness.

The discussion will bring together leaders from government, industry, regulatory agencies and health organisations to explore how long-term partnerships can transform fragmented efforts into collective readiness for the 100 Days Mission, drawing on real-world progress, including the rapid response to the Bundibugyo outbreak.

📍 Japan Society, New York | 21 September, 11:30 EST (17:30 CET)

More information to follow!

Attend in person or watch the livestream. Register now: https://web-eur.cvent.com/event/44c8f5cf-8f8c-4faf-a7de-c130d8b2d323/summary

01/09/2026

It is with great sadness that CEPI received the news that Dr Vaseeharan Sathiyamoorthy, or Vasee Moorthy for short, passed away suddenly on 30 August 2026. He was the Strategy and Scientific Adviser in the Department of Science for Health and acting Lead of the R&D Blueprint for Epidemics in the Office of the Chief Scientist at WHO.

CEPI’s Deputy CEO, Aurélia Nguyen, had the privilege of spending the past week with Vasee in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of the WHO delegation led by Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, observing the Ebola outbreak response and working together to advance preparations for vaccine clinical trials. It was a week of long days - airports, offices, bumpy roads, hours in the field - which provided an opportunity to talk at length about the work and the people behind it.

Vasee was one of the most respected figures in the global research community. He was especially proud of his work designing the Phase 3 clinical trial for the malaria vaccine that ultimately secured licensure. Over seventeen years at WHO, he valued deeply that it was an institution where scientific advice could be given honestly and taken seriously. He spoke warmly of the wide community of researchers he convened and consulted throughout his career, and of how much he enjoyed that collaborative spirit.

During the visit to Kinshasa and Bunia, Vasee’s overarching drive was to ensure the country had ownership of the research component of the response, in the two clinical trials for therapeutics under way and in the preparation for the vaccine clinical trials. Having clinical trial research capacity in lower-income countries was the theme that animated him through his whole career, whether for endemic diseases like malaria or in outbreak response for Ebola.

Outside of work, Vasee was a passionate hiker who organised a weekly hiking group and chased a personal goal of doing a thousand metres of elevation every week. He was looking forward to the multi-day hike he took every September. He was also a loving husband and devoted father to his three children and spoke of his family often and with real pride.

Vasee brought rigour, warmth, and an unmistakable enthusiasm to everything he did - for science, in the mountains, and for the people around him. This is deeply shocking and tragic news, he will be deeply missed by the many communities he was part of. Our thoughts are with his family at this time.