UK pledges £160m to help accelerate vaccine development
The funding, announced ahead of a March pandemic preparedness summit, will support plans to slash vaccine development time to 100 days.
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Your support makes all the difference.The UK is pledging £160 million to a major scientific project working on speeding up vaccine development for deadly diseases.
The funding for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi) will support its drive to slash vaccine development time to 100 days – about a third of the time that it took the world to create a Covid-19 jab.
Cepi is also working on developing “variant-proof” vaccines which could protect against future Covid-19 strains, and boosting manufacturing in low and middle-income countries to enable equitable access to jabs globally.
The funding announcement on Thursday comes ahead of the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit, which will be hosted by the UK in partnership with Cepi on March 7-8 in London to raise investment from the international community to help reach the 100-day goal.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “I urge other potential donors to step up and fund this vital work to help us avoid future pandemics, save millions of lives and prevent trillions in economic damage.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “This pandemic is a global challenge and it has shown the best way to chart a course back to freedom is by standing side by side with our international partners.
“The UK’s ground-breaking science and research has led the way on vaccines and treatments. It is helping us learn to live with Covid”.
Dr Richard Hatchett, chief executive of Cepi, added: “This funding comes at a critical moment, allowing Cepi to pursue our ambitious programme to develop ‘variant proof’ vaccines against Covid-19 and other betacoronaviruses, as well as pursue our life-saving work developing vaccines against the next Disease X and known viral threats such as Lassa Fever, Nipah and Chikungunya.
“Contemplating future pandemics is difficult, especially as we continue to battle the current one, but the threat is real and we must seize this rare convergence of political will, practical experience, and scientific progress to build a world that is better prepared.”
Dr Hatchett also thanked the UK Government for “elevating the 100-day mission to a G7 priority” during its presidency of the G7 group of the world’s most industrialised nations in 2021.
The UK has provided the organisation with £276 million since 2018.
The coronavirus pandemic saw vaccine development timelines contract from around 10 years to 326 days – an achievement that inspired the 100-day goal.
The plan to attain it features the creation of a global library of prototype vaccines for the 25 viral families known to infect humans.
When the next virus with pandemic potential emerges, these prototypes would be built upon to create a vaccine ready for use within 100 days.
The March summit will bring together science and health leaders, with speakers including WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the co-developer of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Dame Sarah Gilbert, and the US president’s chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci.
Cepi is a global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations.
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