Coalition Of Epidemic Preparedness Innovation:
Union Minister for the Ministry of Science & Technology inaugurated Asia’s first health research-related “Pre-clinical Network Facility” under the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in Faridabad.
- Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) was launched in 2017 as an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil organisations.
- It was founded in Davos (Switzerland) by the governments of Norway and India, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the World Economic Forum.
- Its mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats so they can be accessible to all people in need.
- CEPI has supported the development of more than 50 vaccine candidates or platform technologies against multiple known high-risk pathogens or a future Disease X.
- Central to CEPI’s pandemic-beating five-year plan for 2022-2026 is the ‘100 Days Mission’ to compress the time taken to develop safe, effective, globally accessible vaccines against new threats to just 100 days.
- The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India is supporting the implementation of the Ind-CEPI Mission, “Epidemic preparedness through rapid vaccine development: Support of Indian vaccine development.
- It is done through a dedicated Program Management Unit (PMU) at Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
