The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has inaugurated a five-year strategy aimed at strengthening global preparedness against epidemic and pandemic threats.
The coalition also called for an additional $2.5 billion to reinforce the world’s disease defenses.
This is contained in a statement by Ms Jodie Rogers, Senior Communications and Advocacy Manager at CEPI.
The strategy, tagged CEPI 3.0, is due to begin in 2027 and requires a total of $3.6 billion for full implementation.
With $1.1 billion already secured and committed, the organization is seeking further investments from governments, philanthropies, and development partners.
According to Rogers, the new plan comes amid increasingly frequent and disruptive outbreaks of deadly diseases such as Nipah, Ebola, Chikungunya, and Marburg, which continue to threaten global health security.
She said research indicates that the risk of another pandemic on a scale similar to COVID-19 remains significant.
Global losses from future pandemics are estimated to exceed $700 billion annually, she added.
Modelling studies suggest that if safe and effective vaccines had been available within 100 days of COVID-19 being identified, more than eight million lives could have been saved, and trillions of dollars in economic damage might have been averted.
“At the centre of CEPI 3.0 is our 100 Days Mission: a goal to develop safe, effective, and accessible vaccines against a virus with pandemic potential within 100 days of its identification,” Rogers said.
“If fully funded, the strategy would deliver three interconnected priorities to enable faster and fairer outbreak response globally.
“First, we will develop vaccines targeting both known and emerging epidemic threats, while advancing response-ready vaccines for high-risk pathogens such as Lassa fever, Nipah virus, and Rift Valley fever.
“This is while generating scientific tools and knowledge across viral families identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as capable of causing a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) or a pandemic,” she said.
Rogers explained that the prototype-pathogen research approach is designed to significantly accelerate vaccine development when new viruses emerge.
“Secondly, CEPI will advance rapid-response vaccine platform technologies and embed them within regional manufacturing networks.
“We will work closely with regulators to ensure access to relevant performance data, strengthening regulatory preparedness and enabling faster assessment of candidate vaccines during emergencies.
“This approach is expected to facilitate rapid vaccine development, quicker manufacturing scale-up, accelerated regulatory review, and improved equity from the outset of outbreaks.
“CEPI will further support and rigorously test global scientific and manufacturing networks that can be rapidly activated to execute the 100 Days Mission—from early research and development to large-scale production,” she added.
This aims to secure access to one to two billion doses of regional manufacturing capacity to enable fast and equitable outbreak response.
CEPI’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Richard Hatchett, said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the high cost of global unpreparedness.
“During COVID-19, the world paid the price of not being prepared.
“Recent outbreaks of Nipah, Ebola, Chikungunya, and Marburg are powerful reminders that epidemic and pandemic disease present one of the greatest challenges of our time.
“Science offers us a solution; by taking decisive action now we can secure a safer future for all,” Hatchett said.
Director-General of Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya, described CEPI as a “global R&D champion” and said its 100 Days Mission would be transformative for Africa.
“Our partnership with CEPI helps Africa strengthen our surveillance capacity so we can detect outbreaks early and put in place the infrastructure to develop and manufacture safe and effective vaccines that make Africa and the world safer,” Kaseya said.
CEPI 3.0 marks the next phase of the organizations mission to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats so they are accessible to all people in need.
In less than a decade, CEPI has supported more than 50 vaccine candidates and invested in 25 platform technologies.
It co-conceived and co-led COVAX, which delivered nearly two billion COVID-19 vaccine doses globally, helping to avert millions of deaths.
Public health experts note that embedding rapid-response platforms within regional manufacturing hubs aligns with Africa’s broader ambition to expand local vaccine production and reduce reliance on external supply chains—a major challenge exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health financing analysts say the success of CEPI 3.0 will depend on sustained political commitment and timely investment, stressing that preparedness costs significantly less than the human and economic devastation caused by pandemics.
